Belarusians prayed for freedom of the country on the day Pope met with Belarusian dictator

On April 27, activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” came to the Church of St Joseph in Minsk.

Activists of “European Belarus” and ordinary church-goers came to the church to pray for “returning the church, release of political prisoners, for Belarus”, the participants of the action said.

The people wanted to remind about the problems of the Belarusian society. Pope Benedict XVI met with Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka on that day.

Actions in defence of St Joseph Church have been held since the Minsk city executive committee announced the building would be given to investors to make a hotel complex and a shopping center.

Th4e monastery was confiscated in 1864 by the Russian Empire after a national rebellion against the Russian czarist regime leaded by Kastus Kalinouski had been suppressed. For next 144 years, the state has been using the complex, built on money of church-goers, for free. The military commandant’s office and prosecutor’s office were evicted from the building. But the Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation and the Belarusian State Museum Archive of Literature and Art remain in the building of the church. Prayers for return of the church to the have been held near the church every evening since March 19, 2005.

Political prisoners – leaders of entrepreneurs Mikalai Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka – still remain in Belarusian prisons.