Father Amyalchenya: Pope passed Lukashenka a souvenir, not a medal
- 10.11.2009, 13:01
State-run mass-media have informed that during the meeting Cardinal Walter Kasper allegedly awarded Alyaksandr Lukashenka a medal of Pope Benedict XVI.
Today the Belarusian leader received representatives of different churches and denominations who are taking part in the international conference “Christian-Jewish dialogue: religious values as a basis of mutual understanding in civil society in the context of global economic crisis”.
State-run media have informed that during the meeting Cardinal Walter Kasper allegedly awarded Alyaksandr Lukashenka a medal of Pope Benedict XVI. Besides, the Cardinal gave pontifical benediction “to state activities for the sake of the peace and the people”.
Commenting on this report to Radio Svaboda, a spokesperson of the Belarusian Roman Catholic Church in Belarus priest Alyaksandr Amyalchenya said that this report was not quite exact.
“There was no medal. It was a souvenir in the form of a medal. It is an absolutely normal practice. It is given as a souvenir at such meetings. No medal was awarded,” the Roman Catholic priest said.
Have the issue of the Pope’s visit to Belarus discussed during the meeting?
“This meeting and issues discussed at it were immediately connected with the dialogue,” Alyaksandr Amyalchenya said.
We remind that receiving representatives of different believes Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that “a unique model of relations of the government and the church has been created in Belarus”. Necessary conditions for activities of all the registered religious organisations have been allegedly created in the country. As said by Lukashenka, “out laws do not allow any discrimination on racial, national or religious grounds”.
Full Gospel “New Life” church’s lawyer Syarhei Lukanin comments on these statements:
“As for our laws that are in line with all the international standards and do not violate believers’ rights, it is not exactly so to put it mildly. For instance, in the preliminary statement of the “Law on freedom of conscience and religious organisations” there is a list of denominations which are called traditional for Belarus. According to the spirit of this law, it means that they have advantage over other denominations. Evangelical churches are not mentioned in that list. And we, Evangelical Christians, feel this discrimination. We are not allowed to do what other denomination are allowed. For instance, it is next to impossible to register a new community, a community cannot buy a religious building. Meanwhile, other churches can successfully do such things,” Syarhei Lukanin said.