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Belarusian Catholics, Protestants celebrate EasterBelarusian Catholics, Protestants celebrate Easter

Easter services were held in Roman Catholic, Uniate and Protestant churches across Belarus on March 31 to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, BelaPAN said.

In his Easter homily, Belarus’ top Roman Catholic cleric, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, said that the “truth about the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives man a new perspective on his life that includes the spirit of eternity.” “That is why the final dimension of human life is eternity rather than temporality,” he said.

The archbishop of the Minsk-Mahilyow Archdiocese expressed concern about the rise of “practical materialism” and the promotion of a “lifestyle that excludes God” in the world.

He lamented what he described as the propaganda of liberalism, sex outside of marriage, pornography, violence, unlimited consumption, and shopping. “Alcohol and drug addiction and the plague of our time - AIDS - are spreading further,” he warned.

On Saturday, the archbishop visited several parishes in Minsk and a church in Rakaw, Minsk region, where he joined believers in their prayers and blessed their food.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka also extended his Easter greetings to Belarus’ Roman Catholic, Uniate and Protestant believers, describing the holiday as a “symbol of renewal and peacefulness” and a “source of the foundations of Christian humanism.”

“It calls for a desire to live in love, work conscientiously, help those who are in need of care and attention,” the presidential press office quoted him as saying in his message. “Let the celebration of resurrection become for you an inexhaustible source of hope and help in achieving the greatest wishes and aspirations, inspire you and give you more strength in creative work for the sake of the future of every family in native Belarus.”

Some 1.5 million Belarusians are said to consider themselves Roman Catholic Christians. The Roman Catholic Church in Belarus has 621 parishes.

There are 18 Uniate and more than a thousand Protestant communities in Belarus.