By Philip Pullella and Polina Ivanova
VATICAN CITY / MOSCOW (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday accepted the resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who spent time in exile last year after angering President Alexander Lukashenko.
Kondrusiewicz turns 75 on Sunday, the age at which bishops must submit resignation letters to the pope, after which he decides whether to accept them.
It is highly unusual for the pope to accept a bishop’s resignation exactly on his 75th birthday and even more so to announce it on a Sunday.
The diplomatic source in Rome said the speed with which the resignation was accepted indicates the possibility that a face-to-face agreement had been reached for both parties in negotiations between the Vatican and the Belarusian government to return Kondrusiewicz’s return from exile in December. win.
Bishops are usually kept in place for months and sometimes years after they have formally submitted their resignations. Especially in conflict areas or in delicate positions, they often stay until a successor is appointed.
The Vatican’s statement announcing the resignation said Kazimierz Wielikosielec, auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Pinsk in western Belarus, would act as Apostolic administrator until a new archbishop was appointed in Minsk.
Kondrusiewicz angered Lukashenko by defending the rights of anti-government protesters, who began resigning shortly after a disputed August 9 election.
The archbishop was refused the same month to return to Belarus after a ceremony in neighboring Poland.
This led to tensions between the Church and the government, and the Vatican sent a special envoy to negotiate on behalf of Kondrusiewicz, with diplomats working for nearly five months to ensure the archbishop’s return.
He returned to Belarus on December 24, when Christian communities celebrated Christmas Eve.
Belo-Russians observe Orthodox Christianity overwhelmingly, but the country has small Catholic minorities, observing the Roman rite in Poland or the Oriental ritual in neighboring Ukraine.
(Report by Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella; written by Polina Ivanova in Moscow and Philip Pullella in Rome; edited by Jason Neely and Frances Kerry)