This section is based largely on material from: (a) the Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church [LCC Chronicle] No. 38 (1 May 1979); and (b) the journal Ausra, issues 15 (February 1979) and 16 (May 1979).
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On 6 April Father Karolis Garuckas, a member of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, died. Large numbers of people came to his funeral.
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The Lithuanian SSR Ministry of Education has adopted a resolution according to which the teaching of Russian in Lithuanian schools will be increased in 1980 (this issue “Samizdat Update”, CCE 53.31 [10]).
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In July 1978 246 inhabitants of Lithuanian villages in the Voronovo district (Grodno Region) of the Belorussian SSR sent a declaration to Masherov, First Secretary of the Belorussian CP, and Griskevicius, First Secretary of the Lithuanian CP, asking that conditions be created for the expression of Lithuanian culture in Belorussia, that Lithuanians should cease to be persecuted for maintaining contacts with institutions and organizations in Lithuania, and that a Lithuanian school should be opened in the village of Pelesa; the inhabitants of this village should have their church returned, the ruined bell-tower should be restored, and the local priest should be allowed to hold services in Lithuanian.
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On 25 December 1978 the Catholic Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights sent their ‘Document No. 5’ to the Presidia of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the Lithuanian SSR, to the bishops and diocesan administrators, as well as to P. Anilionis, the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs, giving the reasons why the Statute on Religious Associations, passed by the Presidium of the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet in July 1976, was unacceptable to the Catholic Church of Lithuania.
Priests of all dioceses (552 altogether), together with Bishops Steponavičius and Sladkevičius, sent declarations to the authorities supporting ‘Document No. 5’. The signatories are trying to have the Statute rescinded and state that they cannot and will not obey it, as it contradicts the canons of the Roman Catholic Church.
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According to the evidence of the Catholic priests, about 70% of the Lithuanian population are believing Catholics. There are now six Catholic dioceses in Lithuania. Three are administered by bishops, three merely by priests. Two bishops, Julijonas Steponavičius and Vincentas Sladkevičius, were retired about 20 years ago and exiled to remote villages.
In Lithuania there are 628 working churches; 95 of these have no rector. They are served by priests from neighbouring parishes.
There are 708 Catholic priests in Lithuania altogether. 175 of them are over 70 years old. In recent years over 20 priests a year die, while the seminary produces seven graduates a year.
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On 18 April the Catholic Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights sent a document to the Presidium of the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet, reporting on the insufficiency of prayer-books and catechisms in Lithuania. In the opinion of the document’s authors, it is necessary to publish 100,000 prayer-books, and as many catechisms, to satisfy the believers’ needs.
The Committee asks the addressee to give permission for their publication.
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Believers of Lithuania have sent a complaint to Brezhnev about the confiscation in 1961 of the church built in Klaipeda with believers’ money, which was taken away from the Catholics and turned into a concert hall.
SCHOOLS
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In Mazeikiai Middle School No. 3 a questionnaire was passed round among the pupils, containing questions such as these:
1. What religious books have you read (title and author’s name, if you remember)?
2. How many times have you been to church?
3. Do you believe in God?
4. Do your parents believe?
5. Why do you go to church? Is it interesting, or do you have nothing else to do, or does someone make you?
6. Which of the pupils in your class believe, don’t believe, have doubts? (Give names).
7. Are there believers in the school? (Give surnames, mention those who serve as altar boys or sing in the church choir).
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On 29 January a ‘week of atheism’ was proclaimed at the Middle School in Pasvelys.
An attempt to organize an exhibition of children’s drawings on atheist themes was foiled by the pupils. On the night of 1-2 February a banner bearing an extract from Article 50 of the Lithuanian SSR Constitution — ‘Citizens of the Lithuanian SSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience …’ — was hung up on the notice-board. On 3 February there was an evening meeting of students and school pupils, attended by about 300 people. Pamphlets, tricolour flags (red-green-yellow, the national colours of the Lithuanian flag during the independent republic) and slogans such as ‘Down with the Russian occupiers!’ and ‘Freedom for Lithuania!’ were hung in conspicuous places in the hall.
In the course of February and the first half of March, the pupils were always being summoned by the school authorities, the police and the KGB: an investigation was in progress. Particular zeal was exhibited by headmaster Kanapeckas, KGB chief Ivaskevicius of the Pasvelys subsection and KGB official Roginov. Rima Juzyte, Rima Varzinskaite and Rasa Pulkauninkaite, pupils of the 11th (and senior) class, were subjected to the worst pressure. After lengthy interrogation Varzinskaite confessed to having disseminated proclamations. She was given a strict warning. Pulkauninkaite had her conduct mark lowered and the official warning she received was included on her record. Juzyte was expelled from the Komsomol and her conduct mark was lowered to ‘unsatisfactory’. Juzyte was told directly that the place for her was not a Soviet school but a psychiatric hospital.
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On 18 April the Catholic Committee for the Defence of Believers’ Rights sent a document entitled ‘Violation of Children’s Rights in the Lithuanian SSR’ to UNESCO and the international conference ‘For peace and the happy future of all children’.
The authors of the document write that children in Lithuania are deprived of the right to be educated according to their parents’ religious convictions; they are forbidden to participate in church services; they are persecuted for going to church. In schools lists of religious pupils are drawn up; children are forced to join the atheist Pioneer and Komsomol organizations. The document presents evidence of persecution and mockery of religious pupils at school. For example, at Plunge Middle School No. 1 the school administration replied to the complaints of the mother of V. Semenauskas, who had been mocked by his unbelieving fellow-pupils, by threatening to deprive her of her maternal rights and expel her son from the school. The Committee also calls UNESCO’s attention to the fact that priests are forbidden to teach children religion.
On 20 April, in a declaration addressed to the Procurator of the Lithuanian SSR, the Committee also describes discrimination against religious pupils and calls attention to the Semenauskas Case.
On 25 May the Committee appealed to the Procurator of Lithuania and the Ministry of Enlightenment in the Lithuanian SSR:
‘We are very worried by the increased terrorization of pupils in the schools of the Lithuanian SSR. On 15 May this year Irena Zilviene appealed to our Committee … Her son Egidijus, a pupil at Telšiai Middle School No. 4, is constantly harassed. Teacher Pilipaviciene tied a Pioneer scarf round his neck by force and hit him in the face … She and teacher Petraityte at the same time abused him in foul language …’
The appeal also cites other instances of believers being humiliated at Telšiai School No. 4 and Middle School No. I in Plunge.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 