Tadevush Kandrusievich

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Archbishop Monsignor Tadevush Kandrusievich (Belarusian: Тадэвуш Кандрусевіч, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz b. January 3, 1946, Odelsk, near Hrodna, Belarus) is the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk and Mahilyow, Belarus.

Born as Tadevush Ihnatsyievich Kandrusievich (Russian: Фаддей (Тадеуш) Игнатьевич Кондрусевич), he was the elder of the two children of Ihnaci Kandrusievich (1906–1985) and his wife Anna (née Shusta; 1911–1999), . His sister was the late Maryia Kandrusievich Buro (1949–1997). In 1962, after completing his secondary schooling, he entered the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the Hrodna Pedagogical Institute (teachers' training college), which he had to leave a year later because of his practice of Catholicism.

In 1964, he entered the Department of Energetics and Machinery Construction at the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute (now known as the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University. He graduated in 1970, becoming a mechanical engineer. He worked in Vilnius, Lithuania (then part of the USSR).

In 1976, aged 30, he entered Kaunas' Theological Seminary and was ordained as a priest on May 31, 1981. He served as (assistant) curate in a number of parishes in Lithuania. On February 13, 1988 he was appointed parish priest of the parishes of Our Lady of Angels and St. Francis Xavier in Hrodna, Belarus.

In 1989 Pope John Paul II appointed him Apostolic Administrator of Minsk, Belarus and Titular Bishop of Hippo Diarrhytus. On October 20 he was ordained bishop by the Pope at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, with Cardinals Edward Idris Cassidy and Francesco Colasuonno as co-consecrators.

On April 13, 1991 two Apostolic Administrations were erected in Russian Federation: that of Russia Europea (European part of Russia) and of Siberia, Msgr. Kandrusievich being appointed to head the former and Msgr. Joseph Werth SJ to the latter. Moscow, the Russian capital, was chosen as the cathedral city for European Russia.

In 1999 this Apostolic Administration was divided in two (Russia Europea Settentrionale in the north and Russia Europea Meridionale in the south, with Saratov as its cathedral city), Msgr. Kandrusievich remaining in Moscow. Finally, on February 11, 2002 the Pope elevated the four Apostolic Administrations of Russia to Dioceses united in an ecclesiastical province. The Apostolic Administration of Moscow now became the Diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, and Msgr. Kandrusievich was named Archbishop and Metropolitan.

Between 1999 and 2005 Msgr. Kandrusievich spent two three-year terms as chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, being then succeeded by Msgr. Joseph Werth. From 1994 to 1999 he was a member of the Pontifical Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and since 1996 of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care (see Roman Curia).

Msgr. Tadevush Kandrusievich is seen by many as a moderate conservative, being hostile towards the traditionalist movement and the restoration of the Tridentine Mass, but at the same time disallowing or discouraging many of the excesses of theological and liturgical liberalism in his diocese. Without any doubt, he has been instrumental in the reestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia after the collapse of the Communist regime.

On September 21, 2007, Msgr. Kandrusievich was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Minsk-Mahilyow by Pope Benedict XVI. He was succeeded in the Archdiocese of Mother of God at Moscow by Italian-born Fr. Paolo Pezzi, FSCB, until now rector of the major seminary of "Mary Queen of the Apostles" in Saint Petersburg.^[1]