President Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus, which is widely regarded as Europe’s most repressive state, renewed calls for the Pope to meet Patriarch Kirill of Russia in his country, during a speech to representatives of Europe’s Catholic Bishops’ Conferences.
“We’ve discussed the results of their encounter far away in Cuba – and I think we should now consider such a meeting here in Minsk, where the problems of East and West, North and South, are constantly discussed,” Mr Lukashenko said. “I and the Belarus nation will do everything for leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to ensure a Minsk meeting achieves something historic.”
The 63-year-old was addressing 80 bishops and archbishops from 45 countries during the first plenary of the Council of Catholic Episcopates of Europe (CCEE) in a post-Soviet country. Catholics make up 17 per cent of the predominantly Orthodox republic’s 10.3 million inhabitants.
CCEE vice president, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, told the press he was moved by the “important summons coming from Belarus”, and believed the country should now be considered “part of Europe’s community”.
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