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Heart and Soul: Converts amongst the conflict in Belarus

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Converts Amongst the Conflict in Belarus

20/11/2020 GMT

Converts amongst the conflict in Belarus

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Converts amongst the conflict in Belarus

In Belarus, Alina Isachenka meets Orthodox worshippers who have converted to Catholicism

In Belarus, Alina Isachenka meets Orthodox worshippers who have converted to Catholicism.

Protests against the Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko have carried on for months. 80% of the country calls themselves Orthodox Christian. The church has stood squarely behind their President but not all of the faithful agree with them. Alina Isachenka is from Belarus and speaks to some of the Orthodox worshippers who have converted and become Catholic. The church has become a symbol of resistance and a haven for reformers. Why have these converts stepped away from the official church and how big a decision was it to leave the church that’s been in their blood for generations?
 
Alina meets the converts and clergy who have switched their allegiance to a church they once saw as an enemy
The Catholic Church has become the conscience of the anti-Lukashenko movement; Alina speaks to the symbolic head of the churches resistance, now exiled in Poland, Archbishop Tadeush Kondrusevich about how Catholic churches have opened their doors, literally in many cases, to Orthodox church goers.

Presenter Alina Isachenka

(Photo: Women form a human chain outside the Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Helena to protest against police violence during opposition rallies against the 2020 presidential election results. Credit: Sergei Gapon/AFP)

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