What will the pope do in Kazakhstan

Earlier, the director of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Didar Temenov, said that this year the congress will receive about 100 participants from 50 countries.

Ahmed Al-Tayeb - Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Metropolitan Anthony of Valakalam - Head of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef are expected at the meeting.

"This visit of Pope Rimsky to Kazakhstan was planned several years before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, today both this trip itself and the meeting of the pontiff with the leaders of international religious communities are gaining special value," priest Vyacheslav Barok said in an interview with Svaboda.

The pope will not have a meeting with Kirill

During his trip, Pope Francis hoped to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who was trying to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church refused to participate in the inter-confessional meeting.

Father Vyacheslav Barok is positive about the absence of Patriarch Kirill at this meeting.

In his opinion, this shows that "there is no effort to create the illusion of dialogue when it is absent."

"The Vatican has developed a certain position regarding the pseudo-religious approach of the Russian Orthodox Church to the aggressive war that Russia is waging today.

From the lips of the prefect of the dicastery (pontifical council) for the promotion of Christian unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, it was said that such a pseudo-religious approach is directly "heresy".

That's a very strong statement, and I agree with it."

The topic of peace is the focus of the talks

Barok notes: it is precisely the clarity of the position that helps to enter the paths on which it will be possible to build peace.

"The visit to Kazakhstan is intended for this purpose.

So that together, having met with the world's religious leaders, we could talk about the problem of peace, which is very relevant in the world today."

At the same time, Vyacheslav Barok says that he does not expect "miracles that we will look at with admiration" from this trip.

"For the Lord to perform miracles, a person needs to be prepared for this (...) If we, the church, are able to fully stand in a certain truth, to name uncompromisingly who is the aggressor, who is the victim, then we can hope for a breakthrough and a miracle" .

Why has the pope not visited Belarus yet?

When asked why the Pope of Rome never visited Belarus, Barok answered:

"They say that Belarus is the canonical territory of the Orthodox Church.

This artificially created term was repeated, perhaps, in the 30s of the 20th century by some Russian Orthodox theologians.

And in the 1990s, this term was actively used by the Moscow Patriarchate in order to limit the possibility of activity to other religious communities (including the Catholic Church), besides the Orthodox.

Apparently, the Patriarch of Moscow has the last word, and Catholics have nothing to do here.

But at the same time, the term "canonical territory" does not prevent the Russian Orthodox Church from doing missionary work in Western Europe, where Christianity has been represented by the Western rite for centuries.

And we can hope that the time is coming

Father Vyacheslav Barok

Despite the constant pressure in Belarus on the Catholic Church, the state will not oppose the visit of the Roman Pope to Belarus, Vyacheslav Barok believes.

"Belarusian authorities are always interested in communication with the church when it can be interpreted instrumentally, when it can be used.

We see this in the history of the relations between the Belarusian state and the Vatican.

The authorities very deftly maneuvered in these relations and always, when they were on the verge of a certain default, they mentioned the Pope of Rome.

And Lukashenko himself went to the Vatican in order to find at least some support from the international community."

Vyacheslav Barok says that today the Vatican pays little attention to the situation in Belarus.

"The policy pursued by the Vatican in the East can be considered a failure.

And the fact that the war is happening is proof of that.

When answering the question of whether the Vatican pays enough attention to the Belarusian problem, you can answer: unequivocally no.

Belarus got lost somewhere in all this conflict.

We have reached the point that in Belarus you can say that the church has "gone into the catacombs" - priests and believers are being persecuted.

And the church is forced to keep silent in such a situation.

And we do not see the corresponding reaction of the Vatican.

And we, the faithful, demand strengthening of faith and are constantly waiting for words of support to be heard from the pontiff's mouth."

For sensitive topics,


write to us here.

SAFE