Faith and memory

Belarus: metaphor of contemporaneity, land of transit and of invasions, a land without natural frontiers at the very heart of Europe. “In this cultural crossroads in which Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims and Jews live together, what role do the words of faith have? What has been the history of the Church and its contribution?”. A month after the hotly contested presidential elections that re-confirmed Aleksander Lukashenko as President, the question of the former Soviet republic was discussed at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. Theme of the meeting: “Language of faith and of memory in Eastern Europe: the land of Belarus”. The meeting was attended among others by Archimandrite Siarghiej Gajek, Apostolic Visitator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis for the Greek-Catholics in Belarus and Consultor of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and the honorary consul of Belarus Michele Darasmo. NOT JUST CHERNOBYL… For many Europeans Belarus is synonymous with Chernobyl, the nuclear power station that exploded on 26 April 1986, exactly twenty years ago. The image conjures up orphanages, young children and teenagers exposed to radiation. But little is known of the ancient culture, especially the religious culture, of this land that, before it was carved up between Austria, Prussia and Russia, formed part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. “In this federal state the Protestant Reformation took on a radical form in the anti-Trinitarianism of Faustus Socinus (theologian of the second half of the 16th century who denied the dogma of the divine Trinity); this prompted the bishops to seek the support of Rome”, explains Archimandrite SIARGHIEJ GAJEK . In Belarus today almost half the population is outside the Church. Latin Catholics total roughly a million; half of them are regular churchgoers. The Orthodox Church enjoys no great participation among the people. Protestants, especially Baptists and Pentecostals, amount to some 400,000. Dialogue especially with the Protestants is not easy and the history of the past weighs heavily on the country: up till twenty years ago infants at kindergartens learnt songs in honour of Lenin. Fifteen years ago there was something of a religious revival, but today the ruling passion among the young is the thirst for money. “In this context Belorussians prefer to substitute the word ecumenism (which often coincided with the sale of Orthodox values to the de-christianized West) with interconfessional dialogue, where dialogue is understood in its ancient connotation: according to the word, according to the truth”, says Gajek. And by truth is meant the reading of the sources. “Language is interwoven with history, i.e. it is rooted in the memory of a people. And the memory of Belarus is not just that of a minor satellite of Moscow: it also includes multiculturalism, an eye to the West, an ancient Slav matrix, a Byzantine vein, a pulsing Christian heart, a Catholic presence, and a Protestant tradition: they all form an exclusive and inseparable part of this land that extends from Scandinavia to the Black Sea”. A LAND REPEATEDLY VIOLATED. But what is the history of Belarus, the former White Russia? “In the period from the 6th to the 8th century the Slavs from the East occupied the country. Many Belorussian towns fell under Tartar domination in the mid-13th century. The country was conquered by Lithuania in the 14th century, but preserved its Orthodox faith and language. In the following four hundred years it was transformed into a cultural entity distinct from Russia and the Ukraine. Following the unification of Poland and Lithuania in 1569, Polish culture came to exert an ever growing influence on Belarus: the Catholic Church simultaneously expanded and recognized the primacy of Rome”, explains MICHELE DARASMO . At the end of the 18th century the power of Poland began to wane, and Russia conquered the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania: publications in Belorussian were banned, and the Russian Orthodox Church was established. Given that the Russians forced the Jews to live in designated areas (White Russia being one of them), the Jewish urban population considerably grew. “During the First World War, many battles between Russians and Germans took place in White Russian territory and a large part of the country was destroyed. Germany conquered the country, but in 1921 the country was partitioned between Poland and Bolshevik Russia. In the 1930s, the Soviet zone of Belorussia was subject to purges: thousands of people were assassinated”, adds the consul. In 1939, when Poland was invaded by Germany and the USSR, the USSR repossessed the Polish zone of Belorussia. The consequence was that the Belorussians found themselves on the front line when Germany invaded Russia in 1941. The German occupation was brutal and resistance spread everywhere. In 1944 the Germans were driven out by the Red Army, but this operation caused the destruction of the country. Belorussians continue to suffer from the resulting depopulation to this day”.