Belarus cardinal who spent early life in, out of prison retires at 91

Published: 2006-06-20

MINSK, Belarus (CNS) -- Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek of Minsk-Mohilev, who retired June 14 at the age of 91, is known for cautiously steering clear of major politics in Belarus, despite his past. Born October 21, 1914, into a Polish family in Valga, now in Estonia, he was exiled to Siberia as a young boy by the Russian czar. Following the 1917 revolution, his family was allowed back into Belarus, where he was ordained just before the outbreak of war in 1939. Two years later he was arrested by Soviet police and condemned to death as a "reactionary cleric." He escaped and resumed his pastoral work when Nazi Germany's army invaded in June 1941. But in 1944, when Belarus changed hands again, he was arrested again and sent back to Siberia with a 10-year labor camp sentence. Released in 1954, he ministered as a priest in Pinsk until 1991, when as Soviet rule tottered the pope created a new Minsk-Mohilev Archdiocese. He became Archbishop Swiatek in May that year, and in 1994 he was named a cardinal.

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