1. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz has been a bishop since 1989, and from 1991 to 2007 held posts in Russia.
16 Facts About Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was born in Odelsk, Grodno District, Belarus, on 3 January 1946 to an ethnic Polish family, the elder of the two children of Ignacy Kondrusiewicz and his wife Anna.
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz had to leave a year later because of his practice of Catholicism.
4.
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz worked in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was then part of the Soviet Union.
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz served as assistant curate in a number of parishes in Lithuania.
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz initiated the translation and publication of Catholic religious literature in the Belarusian language.
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On 13 April 1991, an Apostolic Administration was erected for Russia Europea based in Moscow, and Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was appointed to head it.
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The Apostolic Administration in Moscow became the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Moscow, and Kondrusiewicz was named Archbishop.
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Between 1999 and 2005, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz spent two three-year terms as chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia.
10.
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz is seen by many as a moderate conservative, being hostile towards the traditionalist movement and the restoration of the Tridentine Mass, but at the same time disallowing or discouraging many of the excesses of theological and liturgical liberalism in his diocese.
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz has been instrumental in the reestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia after the collapse of the Communist regime.
12.
On 21 September 2007, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Minsk-Mahilyow by Pope Benedict XVI.
13.
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz noted that, due to neo-Sovietism, Belarus still celebrates the revolution date as a public holiday, while the Catholic population do not have official day-offs on All Saints Day and Memorial Day to perform their rites.
14.
On 31 August 2020, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was prevented from entering Belarus after visiting Poland, despite being a Belarusian citizen.
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Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz had told an interviewer that "There is reason to believe that the [9 August 2020] election was dishonest".
16.
Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz was awarded the Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg".