Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz. Photo: catholic.by
Belarusian Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk and Mahilou Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz hopes Pope Francis will visit Belarus, according to his statement for reporters in Minsk on 15 December, reports BELTA.
In 2018, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. "We would like to see Pope here. We pray [for it to happen] but this is not in our competence," Metropolitan Kondrusiewicz added.
Euroradio reported earlier that the visit by Pope to Vilnius was planned for the autumn of the next year.
A visit by the Pope to Belarus has been on agenda for many years when the Belarusian president met in Vatican with two Popes - Benedict XVI and Francis - he visited the latter in 2016. During his visit Alexander Lukashenka invited Pope Francis to come to Belaru. This year, the Belarus leader proposed to host a meeting between the Pope and the Moscow Patriarch in Belarus.