Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz: I Could Not Keep Silence, As This Is Insult ToThe Cross

The letters of the archbishop to the authorities regarding the demolition of crosses in Kurapaty should be reckoned as official appeals.

Before starting the “territory arrangement” in Kurapaty, those in charge should consult with the religious community about what to do with the crosses installed there, the chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus, Metropolitan of Minsk and Mahiliou Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz told at the press conference on April 16 in Minsk, tut.by reports with a reference to BelaPAN.

“The Great Fast is at the center of our attention in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, we worship the cross with all Christians,” the Catholic hierarch noted. “Every Friday and other days, the prayers of the cross way are held in our churches. And at the same time crosses are demolished. It’s another matter whether they were installed with or without permission. I stand for everything to be done according to the law, however, when they were put, there was no one to actually mind it. The cross is a symbol of Christianity. I am convinced that, probably, Kurapaty should be improved, but it can be done in a different way. ”

“We also remove crosses from the towers of our churches, we take icons out of them, because sometimes museums ask us, and most often we do it in order to restore them. But can you imagine what would have happened if the priest had not informed the believers before that? This is a whole war! Where did the cross go, the icon? These are holy things for people. But if we explain, then there is no problem,” he added.

The Archbishop is confident that if the responsible persons had warned the society about the plans for the improvement of Kurapaty, there would be no negative reaction from the people. He believes that “it was necessary to call on representatives of various confessions, religions and say that there is such a project, it is necessary to improve the place, like, what can we do here”.

“Maybe it’s possible to rearrange this cross a little, when it interferes with the vehicles in one place, and then put it back. I am sure that if this had been done, there would have been no noise and protests. But this was not done either for the first time or the second. Therefore, I could not be silent, because this is an insult to the cross,” said the metropolitan.

As Kondrusiewicz noted, the letters with which he responded to two cases of mass demolition of crosses around the Kurapaty perimeter can be considered official appeals to the authorities.

On April 4, the authorities destroyed the crosses around the perimeter of Kurapaty, the place where the victims of Stalinist repression were executed. About 100 crosses were brought down and taken out.

On April 12, the authorities demolished another 50 crosses in Kurapaty.