BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/02/2008

Belarus conference to feature Pope's video appearance

Minsk, Feb. 6, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) will take part in a televised conference linking the Vatican to the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on March 1, the Interfax news agency reports.

Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk is organizing the event, in which the Pope will preach and join the congregation from Belarus in prayer. The program will be a "first" in Belarus, a country with strong ties to Russia and the Orthodox Church, which imposes severe restrictions on minority religions.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, a native of Belarus who previously served as Archbishop of Moscow, told Interfax that Catholicism has been "developing very rapidly over the past 16 years" in Belarus-- a reference to the fall of the Communist regime. He mentioned that during the televised conference, information about the Orthodox faith will also be available to the audience.

Source:

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=56458

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