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A short report from the Vatican says that T. Kandrusevičius turned 75 on Sunday. At the age of this age, all bishops must submit to the Pope a request for resignation, which the Pope grants immediately or later.
The report also indicates that Bishop Kazimer Velikaselec, the Augsilean bishop of the Diocese of Pinsk, has been temporarily appointed Apostolic Administrator of Minsk and Mogilev.
In September, Belarusian citizen T. Kandrusevich was not allowed to enter the country from Poland without explaining the reasons. He had gone to attend services in Bialystok. T. Kandrusevičius returned to Belarus shortly before Christmas.
While in Poland, he gave an interview to local radio, calling for an end to police violence against opposition protesters and demanding the resignation of authoritarian leader Aliaksandr Lukashenko, who was declared the winner of the August elections.
The opposition and western democracies claim that these elections were rigged. Protests have taken place in Belarus for the fifth consecutive month, demanding Lukashenko’s resignation, the release of political prisoners and new elections.
Commenting on the situation in the fall, Lukashenko said that the Belarusian Catholic leader in Poland “received advice on how to destroy the country.”
T.Kandrusevičius graduated from Kaunas Priests Seminary, worked in Vilnius, Druskininkai. He was appointed Metropolitan of Minsk-Mogilev in 2007 and in June 2015 he was elected President of the Conference of Bishops of Belarus.
On Sunday, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanouskaya wrote on Twitter that the archbishop would celebrate his last mass this Sunday.
“Belarusians were truly blessed” under his leadership “at this difficult time,” wrote the Belarusian opposition leader, who currently lives in Lithuania, and was forced to leave Belarus after the presidential elections.
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