Belarus aims to become bridge between Orthodoxy and Catholicism

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is going on a visit to Europe for the first time in many years. He will travel to Rome to have a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Lukashenko has been trying to develop closer ties with the European Union lately, which raises concerns with the Russian administration. The Belarussian leader tries to become a mediator between Orthodoxy and Catholicism to make his country become a bridge between Russia and the European Union.

 

Alexander Lukashenko embarks of an official visit to Europe for the first time in 14 years. He will meet the Pope on April 27 in The Vatican. Lukashenko will also attend official dinner that Silvio Berlusconi will give in his honor.

In October 2008, the European Union lifted the ban that barred Lukashenko and top officials of Belarus from entering Europe. Lukashenko was dubbed as “the last dictator of Europe.”

Afterwards, Alexander Lukashenko will travel to Prague to participate in the summit of EU leaders and members of the Eastern Partnership Program. The heads of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan will arrive in the Czech Republic for the summit too. Russia was not invited, which gave the Russian leadership a reason to see the summit as an attempt of the European Union to set up its cordon along Russia’s borders.

These days, Europe promises multi-billion assistance to Belarus in its struggle against the crisis. In return, they do not want Lukashenko to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Parliament of Belarus was supposed to consider the issue on April 2, but the discussion was delayed before September. It goes without saying that the parliament, which mostly includes Lukashenko’s followers, consulted the president before making such a decision.

Lukashenko’s visit to The Vatican is interesting per se. The president of Belarus will meet the Pope to discuss the questions of cooperation between his country and the Roman Catholic Church. It will be a gift to many Belarussians: a quarter of the country’s population practice Catholicism.

Lukashenko will also try to exercise his skills in the field of church diplomacy. He said April 26 that he was going to deliver a letter from the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to the Pontiff. Rumor has it that Lukashenko would like the heads of the two churches to meet in Belarus.

“My visit to the Pope proceeds from the appraisals that we have been getting from the hierarchs of the Catholic Church regarding the politics that we have been running towards Catholics. There were so many questions about the relations between the authorities and the church, the Catholic Church, first and foremost. Where are those questions? There are none!” Lukashenko said.