Archbishop Kondrusiewicz: The world needs sages and saints, not revolutionaries
The Archbishop Emeritus of Minsk celebrates the feast of St. Casimir in a church destroyed during the Soviet era and rebuilt last year.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - The world needs "sages and saints", not "reformers" or "revolutionaries" says Msgr. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, celebrating the consecration Mass of the new church of St. Casimir in Stolbtsy, in the province of Minsk on 7 March.
It is one of the first public gestures of the Archbishop Emeritus of Minsk, who had spent months in exile and then retired on January 3, after difficult negotiations with the Belarusian authorities. Quoting the French theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu, he stressed that "the most important thing in human life is wisdom".
In his homily, reported extensively by the Belarusian media, Kondrusiewicz explained that wisdom is manifested "in the ability to adequately organize the life of man himself and of society, and also in that of making the necessary decisions for this, knowing objectively evaluate situations ". For this reason, the archbishop proposed to the faithful present to "look through the prism of divine law, to understand who we really are, whether we are authentic or artificial Christians".
According to the prelate, “we live in a time in which natural things, artefacts and even food, are replaced by artificial ones, because they are less expensive, but moral values cannot be cheapened, they cannot be devalued. The Gospel was given to us not for us to change it, but for it to change us, according to the requirements of the moral law”.
Recalling the dramatic events experienced in recent months, Kondrusiewicz said that "human life is a continuous struggle, in which we must overcome evil with good. In every epoch of human history, reformers or revolutionaries are needed not as much as wise and holy men. May the good Lord fill us with the grace of being similar in this to our heavenly patron Saint Casimir, in order to be able to build a civilization of life and love, and to be able to share with him the eternal joy of heaven".
The church of Saint Casimir was rebuilt precisely during 2020, restoring what remained of the old church, left in ruins in the Soviet years, alongside which a new church had risen. Last 9 October, while Kondrusiewicz was in exile in Poland, his vicar Msgr. Jurij Kosobutsky had blessed the installation of the church spire, in the typical pseudo-Gothic style of many Catholic churches in Belarus and Russia, built at the end of the 19th century, after the deportation of many Poles to the territories of the Tsarist empire.
Kosobutsky had led the archdiocese of Minsk during the four months of the metropolitan’s exile, has currently been replaced by the apostolic administrator, Monsignor Kazimierz Wielikoselec. Rebuilding churches destroyed by the atheist regime has always been Kondrusiewicz's primary concern, first in Russia and then in Belarus. In recent years he has also made great efforts for the revival not only of the buildings, but of all the ecclesiastical and educational structures, and of the initiatives of Catholics in the various spheres of society.
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03/11/2020 13:29
