Archbishop
Tadeusz
Kondrusiewicz,
the head of the
Catholic Church
in Belarus. Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said at a farewell Mass January 24 that the Church would remain a source of strength for Catholics in Belarus despite a change in leadership.
The departing archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev also promised that he would remain an active bishop at the Cathedral of the Holy Name of Mary in the capital, Minsk.
Pope Francis accepted Archbishop Kondrusiewicz’s resignation on January 3, his 75 birthday, shortly after the archbishop was permitted to return to Belarus after a four-month enforced exile.
“Changing a bishop after he reaches the age of 75 is a normal thing,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz said, according to Catholic.by, the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus. “I leave as a ruling bishop, but as a bishop I remain.”
“It is important that, despite the change of bishops, the Church remains, operates and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
On the same day that he accepted the archbishop’s resignation, the Pope named Bishop Kazimierz Wielikosielec as apostolic administrator of Minsk-Mohilev archdiocese.