Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevičius of Lithuania Visits Catholic Extension

Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevičius, S.J., of Lithuania paid a visit to the Catholic Extension offices October 28, spending some time visiting with Catholic Extension President Fr. Jack Wall before going to visit with Chicago Archbishop and Catholic Extension Chancellor Francis Cardinal George, OMI, at the Cardinal's residence.

The archbishop has been a persistent advocate for freedom of religion in Lithuania. In 1972, he initiated the underground publication, The Chronicle of the Catholic Church of Lithuania, which was smuggled out to the U.S. to expose facts of the religious persecution in Soviet Lithuania. The underground publication was severely persecuted by Soviet authorities, and Fr. Tamkevičius was arrested in 1983 for alleged anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation. He was sentenced with a 10-year prison term and exiled. Fr. Tamkevičius spent his prison term in the labor camps of Perm and Mordovia, and in 1988 he was exiled to Siberia. Thanks to liberalization of Soviet politics caused by perestrojka, Fr. Tamkevičius was set free in 1988.

In 1989 the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference appointed Fr. Tamkevičius as spiritual director and then rector of the Interdiocesan Seminary of Kaunas. In 1991, Fr. Tamkevičius was consecrated auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Kaunas, Lithuania's second largest city, and five years later he was elevated to Archbishop of Kaunas. Having already served as president and vice-president of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference, he is now serving as president of the conference again.

The trip to Chicago afforded the Archbishop the chance to speak with Cardinal George, who is president of the U.S. bishops' conference, about the need to support the faith of ethnic immigrants across the United States. An estimated 30,000 Lithuanian émigrés live in Chicago, and 100,000 nationwide. The Chicago Lithuanian community publishes the only daily Catholic newspaper - Draugus, which will celebrate its centennial next year.

Archbishop Tamkevičius told Fr. Wall he is concerned that the people's Catholic identity is being lost in the assimilation process, and he asked for ideas on counteracting the impact of Western materialism and secularization. Lithuania does not have a home mission society like Catholic Extension, he said, but its better-off Catholics have informally helped support the Church in the nation's "hinterlands."

Archbishop Tamkevičius was accompanied by Msgr. Edmond Putrimas, who acted as translator. The Toronto-based monsignor is head of the Apostolate of Lithuanian Catholics Abroad, which watches over the concerns of Lithuanian Catholics worldwide. He, too, expressed the need for more vocations both in Lithuania and in émigré nations.