Lithuania says farewell to its cardinal

VILNIUS - Vincentas Sladkevicius, 80, the only cardinal of Lithuania's Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century, died on May 28. President Valdas Adamkus called him a "pillar of the Catholic Church of Lithuania and the whole country." Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis described Sladkevicius as the "heart of nation."

These words were not just usual polite phrases said about the deceased authority. Sladkevicius had a great influence on Lithuanians, an absolute majority of whom are Roman Catholics.

Sladkevicius became a priest in 1944. The Pope nominated him to be the bishop of Kaisiadorys in 1957. However, Soviet authorities did not allow him to do his bishop's duties and deported him to remote Lithuanian villages that year. The KGB kept him living there for 23 years, but other priests regarded Sladkevicius as a bishop and obeyed his opinions.

Sladkevicius consecrated some men to be priests of the Catholic Church without the permission of Soviet authorities.

After his blessing, the anti-Soviet underground activists started to publish "Chronicle of Lithuanian Catholic Church" in 1972. This underground newspaper wrote about persecutions of religion, violations of human rights and supported Lithuania's dreams of re-establishing an independent state. The KGB arrested many of the "Chronicle's" publishers, but this publication continued to be issued in underground circles until the collapse of Soviet censorship in the late 1980s.

Some time ago, Estonian President Lennart Meri said the situation of Lithuania and Poland was slightly different from other nations suppressed by communism, because the Roman Catholic Church was kind of a semi-legal opposition towards Moscow in these two countries during Soviet domination. Pope John Paul II nominated Sladkevicius to the rank of cardinal in 1988. Sladkevicius demonstrated his support for national rebirth in the late 1980s.

Landsbergis said that Sladkevicius' speech about independent Lithuania before a crowd of some 100,000 during the unveiling of the restored Liberty Statue in Kaunas in 1989 had been a turning point in the national liberation movement.

"It was a sign that the time of diplomacy is over and we need to go straight forward to our goal," Landsbergis said at the coffin of Sladkevicius near the Kaunas Cathedral Basilica on June 1.

Lithuanian soldiers and students of the seminary carried the coffin around the cathedral while about 20,000 people gathered to say farewell to Sladkevicius, the second cardinal during in the history of the Lithuanian state. The first cardinal was Jurgis Radvila in the 17th century.

Sladkevicius was an authority for all Lithuanians and was softening tensions between various top politicians. They often visited him, especially former President Algirdas Brazauskas. No wonder that his solemn mass was attended by such eternal rivals as Brazauskas and Landsbergis, Conservative Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and populist Kaunas Mayor Vytautas Sustauskas and many other politicians from the political spectrum.

A solemn mass was led by Poland's Cardinal Jozef Glemp. He said that Sladkevicius always appealed to him because of his reticence, obedience, goodness and attitude that service to the Catholic Church was a service to the entire Lithuanian nation.

Kazimieras Vasiliauskas, a former prisoner of a Soviet concentration camp and a current priest of Vilnius St. Nicholas' church, knew Sladkevicius very well. Vasiliauskas said that Sladkevicius lived like a poor monk, neglecting material treasures all his life.

"He had no villa, no cardinal's residence, no Mercedes. All his treasures were in his heart and the absolute majority of the nation loved him," Vasiliauskas said.