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TheCatholic Church inBelarus is part of the worldwideCatholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of thePope inRome. The firstLatin Church diocese in Belarus was established inTuraŭ between 1008 and 1013. In the subsequent centuries, Catholicism gradually became a dominant religion of Belarusiannobility (theszlachta) and of a large part of the population of West Belarus.
According to official government data, As of 2015[update], there were 674,500 Catholics in the country, about 7.1% of the total population.[1] Figures in 2020 state that 10.58% of the population is Catholic.[2] Other surveys put the figure as much higher.[3]
Most Catholics belong to theLatin Church. A small minority areEastern Catholics who worship according to theByzantine Rite, forming theBelarusian Greek Catholic Church.
Polish andLithuanian minorities in Belarus are predominantly Latin-Rite Catholics. The Greek Catholics are mostly ethnicBelarusians, with someUkrainians.
The nationalCaritas Belarus and the four diocesan Caritas organisations are the social arm of the Catholic Church in the country.
The numbers of adherents given below are self-reported by the Catholic Church as of 2009[update].[4]
One Latinmetropolitan archdiocese:
Three Latinsuffragan dioceses:
Metropolitan ArchbishopJosephus Romualdovitsche Stanevskiej has been the leader of the Latin Church in Belarus since 2021.[5] The apostolic administrator for the Belarusian Greek Catholics is the Rt. Rev. Mitred Archimandrite JanSergiusz Gajek, M.I.C.[6]
The first Latin Church diocese in Belarus was established inTuraŭ between 1008 and 1013. Catholicism was a traditionally dominant religion of Belarusiannobility (theszlachta) and of a large part of the population of western and northwestern parts of Belarus. There was once anArcheparchy of Polotsk-Vitebsk of theRuthenian Uniate Church.Josaphat Kuntsevych was archbishop from 1618 to 1623, succeeding another archbishop.
In August 2020, the leader of the Catholic Church in Belarus,Tadevuš Kandrusievič, was banned from returning to Belarus from Poland for several months after condemning violence duringmass protests.[7][8] In July 2021,Alexander Lukashenko tried to intervene in the prayer schedule warning Catholic priests not to perform the religious song "The Almighty God" (Belarusian:Магутны Божа).[9]
In 2023, Freedom House rated Belarus’ religious freedom as 1 out of 4.[10]
