VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis on Sunday accepted the resignation of the archbishop of Minsk, whom Belarusian authorities had blocked for months to return to his homeland after criticizing the crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Bishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, at the head of the diocese of Minsk-Mohilev, had only returned to Belarus on December 24, just in time to celebrate Christmas Mass. It was almost four months after his entry was blocked while returning from a religious visit to Poland. . The impasse ended last month after Francis sent a former Vatican ambassador to Belarus to Minsk to meet with the country’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Church rules require bishops to submit their resignation before their 75th birthday, and the Vatican said Kondrusiewicz, who turned 75 on Sunday, had done so. The pope immediately allowed him to leave office. Popes often allow bishops to remain for months, even years, after they turn 75 years old.
The day after Kondrusiewicz tried to return to Belarus, Lukashenko accused him of “getting into politics and dragging believers.” Weeks of mass protests had seen Belarusian citizens flood the streets in daily protests demanding Lukashenko’s resignation.
The president’s victory after an August 9 election was widely seen as fraudulent. Protests have continued to defy brutal police repression that has detained more than 30,000 protesters.
Francis has now appointed an apostolic administrator to head the archdiocese, Bishop Kazimierz Wielikosielec, who serves as auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Pinsk.