By Philip Pullella and Polina Ivanova
VATICAN CITY / MOSCOW (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Sunday accepted the resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who spent a period in exile last year after angering President Alexander Lukashenko.
Kondrusiewicz turned 75 on Sunday, the age when bishops are obliged to send letters of resignation to the pope, who he then decides to accept.
It is very unusual for the pope to accept a bishop’s resignation precisely on his 75th birthday and even more to announce it on a Sunday.
The speed with which the resignation was accepted indicated the possibility that a bailout agreement for both sides was found in negotiations between the Vatican and the Belarusian government to secure Kondrusiewicz’s return from exile in December, a diplomatic source said in Pomegranate.
Bishops are usually held in office for months and sometimes years after formally giving up their resignations. Particularly in areas of conflict or in sensitive positions, they usually remain until a successor is appointed.
Instead, the Vatican statement announcing the resignation states that Kazimierz Wielikosielec, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Pinsk in western Belarus, would serve as Apostolic Administrator until a new archbishop is appointed in Minsk.
Kondrusiewicz angered Lukashenko by defending the rights of anti-government protesters, who started calling for the president’s resignation shortly after an disputed election on August 9.
The archbishop was denied entry to Belarus in the same month on his return from a ceremony in neighboring Poland.
This created tensions between the Church and the government, and the Vatican sent a special envoy to negotiate on behalf of Kondrusiewicz, with diplomats working for almost five months to ensure the archbishop’s return.
He returned to Belarus on December 24, when Christian communities celebrate Christmas Eve.
Most Belarusians observe orthodox Christianity, but the country has small Catholic minorities, observing the common Roman rite in Poland or the eastern rite found in neighboring Ukraine.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella; Writing by Polina Ivanova in Moscow and Philip Pullella in Rome; Editing by Jason Neely and Frances Kerry)