Bishop of Vitebsk
Bishop Aleh Butkevich, Bishop of Vitebsk, was born on 18 March 1972 in Braslav, in the territory of the present Vitebsk Diocese. Before entering the Higher Theological Seminary in Grodno in 1994, he graduated from the Belarusian State Agrarian Technical University. He received priestly ordination on 13 May 2000. He served as vicar of the parishes in Navapolatsk and Miory and as pastor of the parishes in Beshankovichy and Ulla. From 2003 he served as pastor of the parish of Saint Anthony of Padua in Vitebsk and dean of the Vitebsk-North deanery. On 29 November 2013, the Holy Father Francis appointed Father Aleh Butkevich Bishop of Vitebsk. On 18 January 2014, he received episcopal ordination. On 3 June 2015, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Belarus elected Bishop Aleh Butkevich as its vice-chairman. On 14 April 2021, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Belarus elected Bishop Aleh Butkevich as its chairman.