Meeting with Special Envoy of Pope Francis Claudio Gugerotti

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Apostolic Nuncio to the United Kingdom Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti on 17 December.

Claudio Gugerotti worked as Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus in 2011-2015. This time he is visiting Belarus as a special envoy of Pope Francis. “We are pleased to welcome you in Belarus as a person who has left a good mark after your service. You spent a couple of years here,” the head of state said at the meeting with the archbishop.

“I very happy that His Holiness Pope Francis sent you to Belarus. It’s a pleasure for me to have a meeting with you. I have good impressions from the meetings, talks and conversations that we had when you served here. I’ve always said that Pope Francis, in my opinion, is a people’s person,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president asked Claudio Gugerotti to wish a Happy New Year to Pope Francis and to wish him strong health. “If he gets sick, he should not worry: he can come to Belarus for treatment, we know how to treat. But now it’s better not to get sick. Soon we will celebrate Christmas and New Year – there is no time to get sick. But in any case, he can come to Belarus,” the head of state said with a humorous undertone.

The archbishop assured that he will covey these words to Pope Francis. In his words, the Pope wanted to celebrate Christmas together with believers, but quarantine measures do not allow doing it right now.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also thanked the special envoy of the Pope for the visit describing it as a good sign. “We’ve always had many topics for discussion. Some issues remain unsolved as more time is needed. But we’ve made certain progress,” the president said.

Claudio Gugerotti also believes that a lot was done for the development of relations during his service in Belarus. “Unfortunately, you left us too early. After the United Kingdom you need to come back,” the head of state said. “There can be retirement after the United Kingdom. We don’t see much sun there – it’s quite dangerous to health,” the archbishop also said jokingly.

Speaking about the pandemic, the head of state said that the situation had begun to stabilize in Belarus. “As of today, we have a few good signs: there has been no exponential increase for two weeks, we have stopped at a certain figure. And the main thing is that the number of pneumonia patients has been reducing by 20-30-40 every day. Therefore, I am optimistic and I believe that we will manage to keep it,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.