Pope meets Belarussian President Lukashenko

(April 28, 2009): Pope Benedict XVI on Monday also received Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, when he paid a visit to Italy after more than a decade of diplomatic isolation . A Vatican statement made an indirect reference to the situation of democracy and human rights in Belarus, saying the Pope and other Vatican officials spoke to Lukashenko about "certain internal problems of the country". Lukashenko's trip to Italy and the Vatican, is his first official visit to a Western country since he visited France in 1995. A statement from Vatican’s Press Office said Lukashenko invited the Pope to visit the former Soviet republic, telling the Pontiff at the end of his 25-minute meeting: "Your Holiness, we hope to receive you on Belorussian soil, God willing". Belarus is about 60 percent Orthodox Christian Belarus' Orthodox Church is an exarchate, or province, of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church. Lukashenko’s invitation to the pope to visit Belarus, which is about 14 percent Catholic, is significant because relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church have been tense since the fall of communism in 1989.