PATRIARCH ALEXYI II INTENDS TO VISIT BELARUS








MOSCOW, MARCH 6, 2001.  From RIA Novosti Correspondent.  Patriarch Alexyi II of Moscow and All Russia intends to visit Belarus in connection with the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. This is the name by which the period of World War II after Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 is known in Russia.


	The head of the Russian Orthodox Church will take part in the opening of a church to commemorate all those who gave their lives during the Great Patriotic War.  It will be opened in Brest, a town on the border between Belarus and Poland.


	The Patriarch said that he also intended to visit Azerbaijan in the next few months.  A diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was recently opened in Baku, the capital of that republic. -- (tol/kaf).


	06/03/01    17:32