Tadeush Kandrusevich: “Believers are the first to be affected by priests’ expulsion”

Metropolitain Tadeush Kandrusevich, Minsk and Mahilyou archbishop of Roman Catholic Church in Belarus is concerned by denial to extend Belarusian visas for 3 Catholic priests.

“Expulsion of Catholic priests is to affect believers in the first place,” stated Tadeush Kandrusevich, answering questions of journalists, Interfax informs.

“There are not enough Catholic priests in Belarus. There are 440 of them in the moment. There are 1.5 mln Catholics in Belarus. It is ideal to have 1 priest per 1,000 church members,” the archbishop said.

“We are not speaking about a thousand of priests. It would be better to have at least 700,” he added.

Besides, Tadeush Kandrusevich noted that he addressed the Conference of Catholic bishops in Slovakia to send Catholic priests in Belarus, but nobody wants to go, as there are not enough priests in other countries too. The Metropolitan noted that “nobody said priests in Belarus should arrive only from Poland”.

Tadeush Kandrusevich has also underlined that there is a problem of priests’ education, it cannot be done too quickly, it is impossible to take somebody on the hand and say: be a priest.

The Metropolitan has also expressed concern over deficiency of Catholic priests in Belarus.

“There is a problem in the country. Sects. Nature abhors the vacuum. If there would be no us [priests], somebody else would come,” Tadeush Kandrusevich emphasized.