Press releases

MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) - The presentation of the first official Roman Catholic edition of the New Testament in the Belarusian language will take place on 19 December, BelTA learned from the National Library of Belarus.

The Roman Catholic Church has prepared a complete official translation of the books of the New Testament into the Belarusian language to mark the 500^th anniversary of the Belarusian book printing this year.

The translation of the biblical texts began in 2002 by the Section of the translation of liturgical texts and official documents of the Church of God’s Worship Commission and Discipline of the Sacraments at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Belarus. The section set a goal of creating an accurate translation of the contents of the biblical books in modern and communicative Belarusian, sticking to the accepted theological terminology. The translation was done from the newest critical publications of the New Testament - Novum Testamentum Graece (1993 and 2012), which serve Greek texts according to the oldest and best manuscripts.

The Roman Catholic New Testament in Belarusian has a supplement with geographical maps of the then-world, a biblical dictionary, and a chronological table of events related to the common history of mankind.

Taking part in the event will be Archbishop Metropolitan of Minsk and Mogilev Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Belarus, priests of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus, Belarus’ Commissioner for Religions and Nationalities Leonid Gulyako, representatives of the ministries of culture, education, information, teachers and students of seminaries and other educational institutions.

Speaking at the event will be Doctor of Biblical Sciences Marina Pashuk.

Among the organizers of the presentation are the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Belarus and the National Library.