Vatican does not comment on initiatives of the Belarusian ruler

The Vatican has not officially responded to the words of Alyaksandr Lukashenka about a possibility of the first meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the head if the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill in Belarus.

As said by the source in the Vatican, such meetings are prepared at the highest church level. A representative of the Vatican on terms of anonymity has also noted that such a meeting of the pope and Patriarch is more likely to take place in Rome or in Moscow, Radio Svaboda informs.

Some other statements of the Belarusian leader during yesterday’s press-conference in Rome look rather contradictory too. In particular, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said (and it was repeated by Belarusian TV Channels) that his meeting with the pope lasted 5 minutes.

According to the official reports from the Vatican, the papal audience on April 17 started at 11 a.m. The meeting lasted for 25 minutes together with translation time. Then at half past 11 the pope met with Argentinean bishops. The audience lasted for about 40 minutes. At 12:15 the key meeting of the day, the official reception in honour of members of the British royal family took place on that day.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church commented the statement about a meeting in Minsk soon in a restrained manner, underlining that such an event “should not be determined by political expediency”.