BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

24/06/2008

Pope invited to visit Belarus

Minsk, Jun. 24, 2008 (CWNews.com) - President Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus has invited Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) to visit his country.

The invitation to the Pope was made during a visit to Minsk by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (bio - news), the Vatican Secretary of State. Although he did not respond on the Pope’s behalf, Cardinal Bertone did later make an encouraging comment when he compared his visit to Belarus with the mission of St. John the Baptist, saying that he was acting as the forerunner for the Pontiff. The cardinal’s statement could be interpreted generally, as an indication that he was doing the Pope’s work abroad; but it could also be interpreted as a hint that the Pope was already considering a trip to Belarus.

The invitation from Lukashenko is particularly noteworthy because Belarus is closely allied with Russia, and the authoritarian government headed by Luksahenko has strongly favored the local Orthodox church, an affiliate of the Moscow patriarchate. A papal visit to Belarus could be seen as a stepping-stone toward a policy goal that the late Pope John Paul II (bio - news) set for the Holy See: a visit to Moscow.

Source:

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=59280

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