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Pope Francis awards gold medal to priest from Belarus
MINSK, 29 May (BelTA) – Pope Francis has awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (for Church and Pontiff) decoration to 75-year-old priest Jozef Zaniewski from Belarus who has been serving in Russia for many years, BelTA learned from the website of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus.
The medal was presented during a Holy Mass in Moscow. The event marked the priest’s retirement after 26 years of service.
The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice cross-shaped medal is the sixth most distinguished decoration of the Holy See instituted by Pope Leo XIII in 1888. It is bestowed on lay people and clergy for at least 25 years of service to the church.
Priest Jozef Zaniewski was born in Belarus. He was ordained a priest in Poland in 1978. Jozef Zaniewski served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grodno, and in 1991 he was appointed to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Moscow.
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