Minsk, Belarus, Nov 22, 2007 / 08:08 am
About 4,500 people attended the recent installation of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz as the archbishop of the archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev in Belarus.
Held in the cathedral of the Name of Saint Mary in Minsk, the installation ceremony was attended by numerous guests including local authorities, heads of charities, and political and religious leaders. Episcopal representatives from the Vatican, Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan were in attendance. Residents of the Grodna-district village of Adzielsk, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz's hometown, were also guests.
The ceremony was held in Belarusian and Latin, and certain prayers were read in various languages including English, Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian. The ceremony was broadcast live to Poland by the Belarusian National Television and Radio Company, while a huge plasma screen was installed in front of the church so people could watch from outside.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was previously the administrator of the archdiocese of Holy Mother of God in Moscow.