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Pačobut gets Pope Leo’s blessing in Vatican, firm on returning to Belarus
Andrej Pačobut
September 2, Pozirk. Belarusian journalist and prominent Polish minority activist Andrej Pačobut (Andrzej Poczobut) had a meeting with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, announcing afterward that he had asked for the pontiff’s blessing and would soon return to Belarus.
In an interview with Polish news agency PAP, the former political prisoner, who was released and deported to Poland four months ago, said that he had asked for a papal blessing for Belarus, for his family and for the Union of Poles in Belarus during a brief conversation following the general audience at the Vatican.
Pačobut said that he felt “an inner calm” after the meeting.
“Soon I will be returning to Belarus, and tension had been building inside of me,” Poczobut said. “I’m very grateful to the pontiff for the calm I feel now. The past months have been very intense. Now I’m at peace.”
He presented Pope Leo XIV with a copy of the Icon of Our Lady of the Congregation, a 16th-century image of the Virgin Mary on display in the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Hrodna, and asked him to bless another icon that will be taken to Belarus.
When asked about the current situation of Poles in Belarus and whether anything has changed in the four months since his release, Pačobut replied that it is “not easy.” “In the near future we will see what it is really like,” he added.
Pačobut said that he was working on a book because he felt an inner need to tell his story.
Pačobut acknowledged that he had been traumatized by his latest prison experience. “Unfortunately, the scars remain, but I’m coping with them,” he said.
On September 1, Polish Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek warned that Pačobut would face a huge risk should he return to Belarus.
Mroczek said that he respected Pačobut’s personal decision to go back but acknowledged that his return would put Poland in a difficult position in its relations with the regime in Minsk. After many years in prison, Pačobut risks ending up there again, while Warsaw considers itself obliged to protect him, Mroczek added.
His comment came a few days after Pačobut vowed to go back to Belarus despite the risk of politically-motivated persecution. Earlier Pačobut said that he would return no later than September.
Andrej Pačobut, known as a contributor to Gazeta Wyborcza, was arrested in March 2021 on what was widely believed trumped-up charges. In February 2023, Judge Dźmitryj Bubienčyk of the Hrodna Regional Court sentenced him to eight years in prison after finding him guilty of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions. Human rights defenders recognized him as a political prisoner.
Belarusian authorities freed Pačobut on April 28, 2026 and deported him to Poland. The release came after John Coale, the US special envoy for Belarus, met with Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski in Warsaw on April 27.
On May 3, Nawrocki presented Pačobut with Poland’s highest state award, the Order of the White Eagle. In 2025, the European Parliament granted him the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Polish official warns Pačobut against returning to Belarus
September 1, Pozirk. Belarusian journalist and prominent Polish minority activist Andrej Pačobut (Andrzej Poczobut) would face a huge risk should he return to Belarus, Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek has told RMF FM. The official said he respected Pačobut’s personal …
