The Vatican announced Tuesday the end of an eight-month wait for the appointment of a new apostolic nuncio to Belarus, the country dubbed “Europe’s last dictatorship.”
The Holy See press office said March 25 that Pope Francis had appointed Msgr. Ignazio Ceffalia, until now a nunciature counselor in Venezuela, to the sensitive role, two days after the pope left hospital after a battle with double pneumonia.
Who is the new nuncio, succeeding Croatia’s Archbishop Ante Jozić, who stepped down from the role last summer? What makes the post so challenging? And what can Ceffalia build on?
Who is the new nuncio?
Msgr. Ignazio Ceffalia is a 48-year-old Sicilian who was ordained a priest in 2003.
Ceffalia was incardinated in the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, a diocese of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, one of the smallest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome, whose members live largely in southern Italy.
He speaks Italian and Albanian, as well as French, English, and Spanish. But not Belarusian and Russian, the two main languages he’s likely to encounter in his new posting (though he can rely on translators).
Since entering the Vatican’s diplomatic service in 2006, Ceffalia has served at nunciatures in Ecuador, Thailand, and Venezuela, as well as spending time at the Permanent Mission to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, and the Vatican, in the Secretariat of State’s Section for Relations with States.
While Ceffalia has solid diplomatic experience, nothing in his brief Vatican biography suggests he has deep knowledge of the East Slavic countries. Between now and his arrival at the nunciature in Minsk, he will likely immerse himself in the history of Belarus, which gained independence in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
If there’s time, he might also study up on Russian history, given that Belarus’ giant neighbor wields huge influence within the nominally sovereign country. Indeed, the tight bond is evident in Belarus’ very name, which can be translated as “white Russia.”
What makes the post so challenging?
There are several reasons why the post of nuncio to Belarus is among the most challenging Vatican diplomatic assignments.
The first is that the country, which has a population of around 9 million people, is a quasi-totalitarian state, led since independence by President Alexander Lukashenko (also known as Lukashenka).
Lukashenko, who describes himself as an “Orthodox atheist,” was recently re-elected to a seventh presidential term with an incredible 87% of votes. But his relationship with the Catholic Church is defined by events following the preceding election in 2020.
Lukashenko is widely believed to have lost the 2020 ballot, despite officially gaining 81% of votes. The resulting mass protests were crushed with the aid of Russian security services.
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the most prominent Catholic leader in Belarus at the time, offered pastoral support to jailed protesters. Returning from a trip to neighboring Poland, he was refused re-entry to Belarus by border officials, creating a diplomatic crisis that required Vatican intervention. He was eventually permitted to return, but Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Minsk-Mogilev days later.
In the years that followed, the authorities arrested several Catholic priests, often on charges of “extremism,” a broad concept that officials apply to any actions, public statements, or social media posts deemed critical of the Lukashenko regime.
This is the second great challenge that Ceffalia faces: reducing the likelihood of further arrests, while assisting clergy who remain within the legal system.
Catholics are not the only ones targeted, but they seem particularly vulnerable because they are a minority in the predominantly Eastern Orthodox country. A complicating factor is that Catholics are sometimes perceived as Western-leaning. A proportion of clergy come from Poland or, like Kondrusiewicz, are Belarusian citizens with Polish roots.
Recent reports suggest that Lukashenko has felt pressure from Moscow to oppose the presence of Polish priests in Belarus. The tense relationship between the Polish and Belarusian states since the 2020 election casts a shadow over the local Catholic Church.
This cultural gulf between the Catholic Church and the Belarusian authorities is the third challenge ahead of the new nuncio.
What can the new nuncio build on?
Paradoxically, perhaps, Lukashenko takes pride in Belarus’ good relations with the Holy See. In February, fresh from his election victory, he expressed “great respect” for Pope Francis, praising him as a man who “knows how to say what he thinks to people from all walks of life.” The two men last met at the Vatican in 2016, but Lukashenko said he hoped another meeting would be possible.
This presents an opportunity for Ceffalia. Can he find a way of further strengthening Vatican-Belarus ties, perhaps through cultural events or exchanges of some kind? Could he help to arrange some kind of contact between Lukashenko and the recuperating Pope Francis?
Communication between the president and the pope could not only help the Catholic minority in Belarus but also contribute to a peaceful settlement in Ukraine. While Belarusian forces are not involved directly in combat, Russia launched its 2022 full-scale invasion partly from Belarus and has moved nuclear weapons to the country. Belarus could therefore be a useful partner to the Vatican as it seeks humanitarian gestures and, ultimately, an end to the Ukraine war.
Lukashenko may be Europe’s longest-serving head of state, but there are no indications he is heading for the exit. Aged just 70, he has years — possibly decades — left in the presidential palace. He has seen eight Vatican ambassadors come and go since Belarus established full diplomatic relations with the Holy See in 1992.
Ceffalia, the ninth, must seek to establish a rapport with Lukashenko, perhaps by comparing notes with the last Italian to serve as nuncio to Belarus: Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, who is now the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
Gugerotti forged a positive relationship with Lukashenko that lasted beyond his posting. Perhaps he could also recommend a book or two on Eastern Europe for Ceffalia to thumb through before he touches down at Minsk National Airport.
