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Gugerotti concerned about criticism of Catholic priests in Belarus

Gugerotti concerned about criticism of Catholic priests in Belarus

Both Huliaka and Lukashenka expressed their discontent with foreign Catholic priests in Belarus.

Apostolic Nuncio in Belarus Claudio Gugerotti met with the Belarusian foreign minister.

Claudio Gugerotti told Uladzimir Makei he was concerned about possible interpretations of the recent remarks about the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus, charter97.org learnt from the MFA's press centre.

In this regard, Gugerotti “paid attention to the enormous work that is carried out by the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus in general, and in training of national staff of the Catholic clergy in particular,” the MFA reports.

Makei noted Belarus was interested in securing our country with Belarusian priests for the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus. “In this context, the head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry welcomed the ongoing decrease in the number of foreigners among the Catholic clergy, as well as the appointment of the three new bishops of Belarusian origin by the Pope at the end of 2013,” MFA says.

Catholic bishops of Belarus held an extraordinary plenary meeting on January 30 and discussed the recent accusations against Polish priests working in Belarus and the remarks that accused the leadership of the Catholic Church of the lack of interest in preparing its staff.

“Both we and Catholic believers are seriously concerned about the accusations that, as we think, insult the Catholic Church unreasonably and stir up ethnic and religious hatred,” the statement says.

According to the document, about 60 local priests worked in Belarus in 1989 and their number has increased sixfold to 360 today.

Leanid Huliaka, the commissioner on religious and ethnic affairs of Belarus said last week that certain foreign priests, mainly from Poland, tried to engage in politics in Belarus. According to him, they criticise Belarus, its laws and the country's leadership. In such cases, the Belarusian authorities do not prolong their permits to stay in the country.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka said at a press conference in Minsk on January 29 that certain Catholic priests from Poland “do the things they are not supposed to do” in Belarus.

“As for the Polish clergy, I am not really happy with the service of some of them on our land. I talked about this with the former Pope when we met. I told him that they sometimes do the things they are not supposed to do,” he said.

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