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Of: TT
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Photo: Alessandra Tarantino / AP / TT
Belarusian Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, in black and cherry, in conversation with Pope Francis two years ago. The Pope has now helped him return home for Christmas.
The Catholic Archbishop of Belarus, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, has now returned from his Polish exile thanks to the Pope’s intervention. He will run two Christmas services in the capital Minsk, reports the Russian news agency Interfax.
Kondrusiewicz was in Poland last summer and said in a television interview that the presidential elections in his home country on August 9 had not gone well. When he later returned home, he was detained at the border and President Alexander Lukashenko said the bishop “had received advice on how to destroy the country.”
Pope Francis became involved in the case and a Vatican envoy met with the president last week and managed to persuade him to let the archbishop return home for Christmas.
Lukashenko has been in power since 1994. A united opposition party has condemned the presidential elections, and new elections were held this fall.
Most of the Christians in Belarus belong to the Orthodox Church, but there are also many Catholics there.
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