Prayer service for political prisoners and abducted oppositionists held near St. Joseph’s Church (Photo)

Activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” have held a rally of solidarity near the St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Minsk on June 16.

The young Belarusians prayed for the abducted and murdered opposition leaders and a journalist, and also for the political prisoners, who are kept in prisons in Belarus today.

The solidarity rally was held near St. Joseph’s church as the church is in a difficult situation now. The public learnt about the plans of the Minsk city executive committee to give the church to investors for re-building it into a hotel complex and a shopping centre.

The monastery was confiscated by the authorities of the Russian Empire in 1864 after the national liberation rebellion against the Russian Empire led by Kastus Kalinouski, had been crushed down. The state has been using this complex, built on money of the believers, for 144 years. A commandant’s office and a prosecutor’s office have been evicted from the monastery building. But the Belarusian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documents and the Belarusian State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art are located in the church building. Evening prayer services for returning the shrine to believers have been holding near the church since March 19, 2005.