About Chronicles

I entered the Kaunas diocesan seminary still during the times of Khrushchev, in 1955. Probably, I was lucky since no one tried to recruit me to be a spy, no one threatened me with anything for which I could have been expelled from the seminary if I did not do. In the third year of my studies, I was called to serve in the army and upon returning encountered a different situation: both the administration of the seminary itself and its spirit had changed. The former rector of the seminary Kazimieras Žitkus (Vincas Stonis) was replaced by Rev. Alfonsas Lapė. I was unpleasantly surprised by some seminarians who agitated for eliminating prayer. When in the summer of 1961 I was called to the Lazdijai district passport division, from which I was delivered to the KGB department where the officer Jonas insistently urged me to "be a friend," I understood who had mixed up the seminary's spirit. Although the bloody period of Stalin was fading, ever denser clouds were gathering over the Homeland and the Church. The 'always correct and never misleading' communist party was planning 'a bright future' for us, which nationalism and religion could hinder. The Council for Religious Affairs diligently implemented the party's program - to destroy religious belief. Not only were the activities of the seminary restricted, but attempts were made to isolate the priests in their parish houses behind a barbed wire of laws and instructions. Punishments ranging from a ban to carry out the duties of a priest to imprisonment threatened those who did not obey them. There was a lack of necessary articles for believers: catechisms, prayer books, and even rosary beads. Under such circumstances one had to decide whom to obey: God or a man? The first opposition steps that led to the origin of the Kronika were made at this time.

    Like-minded priests from time to time met to discuss current events and questions concerning priest affairs. The vague future was one of the greatest problems: scores of priests passed away every year, while the seminary admitted only five students each year, leaving other candidates behind the seminary's gates. The plan of the Soviet authorities was clear: to reduce the number of priests to a minimum as quickly as possible, to lock up those working in their parish houses, and make some of the priests their agents. In this way, the Church will be fatally injured - after losing its pastors, it will lie still in agony.

     What to Do?

    This question made everyone who cared for Church affairs feel uneasy. In 1968 while discussing Church problems, the idea arose to demand the abolishment of the limit on the number of students admitted to the seminary and to try to notify the free world about the persecution of the Church.

    The first petitions, which frightened both the communist party and state security, were begun in the dioceses of Telsiai and Vilkaviskis and some of the priests who signed them were scolded and others were forbidden to carry out their priestly duties. It was a very difficult, but possible, task to pass through the iron curtain at that time. We began by typing with a typewriter some information on a white fabric which was then sewn into a dress of a woman traveling to the U.S.A. Later we succeeded in establishing ties with Moscow dissidents. Arimantas Raskinis, who was studying in Moscow, got acquainted with Sergei Kovalev, who became a great friend of Lithuanians.

    In 1969 I was deprived of the right to work as a priest and had to find other employment. That summer together with another priest sharing the same fate, Juozas Zdebskis, I worked at the Prienai Melioration Works. We were hired by the superintendent, engineer Jurgis Brilius. He helped us to leave the melioration work and do church work. During that year I gained new acquaintances and acquired experience in working under underground conditions. That year was a real favor of God - it gave me that which I had not acquired in the seminary. It became clear to me and other priests that the Soviet registration certificate which granted the right to work as a priest was not salvation. The most important thing, as exiled Bishop Vincentas Sladkevičius said at that time, was to have God's registration certificate.

     In Simnas

    My appointment to Simnas as a vicar was another favor of God because I had a good pastor Juozas Matulevičius and enough spare time. In meetings with other priests we started discussing the press question: a publication which would awaken national and especially religious consciousness and would reflect the problems of Catholic life was very necessary. The necessity to issue such a publication was supported by the majority of zealous priests, especially Juozas Zdebskis. At that time Zdebskis, Antanas Šeškevičius SJ, and Prosperas Bubnys MIC had been sentenced for teaching children.

    With the assistance of Petras Plumpa, I prepared the first issue of the publication. We chose the name Vivos voco [I call the living] for the publication and wanting the Church to bless it, I visited exiled Bishop Sladkevičius and showed him the prepared material. On the bishop's desk I saw the Polish newspaper 'Chronicle', and the 'Chronicle of Current Events' was very popular in Moscow. The bishop looked through the material, thought a little, praised the idea of issuing a publication, even if it was modest, and suggested the name Kronika. The Bishop expressed his opinion: "Would it not be good if the publication would describe some event and then add a brief commentary? Would not such a publication be the most necessary?" There was nothing to do except support the good idea. In this way Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius became the godfather of the Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčios Kronika (The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania). Having received the approval of the bishop, I brought the completed publication to Jonas Danyla SJ because the approval of my direct superior (at that time he was the Provincial superior of Lithuania's Jesuits) was necessary for such an important step. Danyla doubted that I would be able to find material, but approved the proposal.

    Petras Plumpa corrected and rewrote the first issue. Some articles were rewritten by the sister of the Congregation of the Holy Family Genovaite Navickaite, and I finished the remaining part which after binding I gave to acquaintances. In this way in the first half of March 1972, the first issue of the Kronika appeared in a small room in the Simnas parish house*. Honoring Juozas Zdebskis who was imprisoned in the Praveniskes camp at that time, I wrote the date - the 19th of March. Plumpa promised to make about 100 copies of each issue of the Kronika. He had lots of experience in this field since he had published several religious books using an ERA copying machine located in the attic of a house on Kalniecių Street in Kaunas.
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* Kreivoji St. 3, Simnas, Alytus district.

     Gathering Information

    When I began publishing the Kronika, I did not think of its periodicity. We would prepare an issue when a sufficient number of articles was collected. Actually, it turned out that collecting enough material was quite difficult. We could not place an ad in the main republican daily newspaper Tiesa (Truth)* stating that an underground publication wanted to receive stories about the crimes of Soviet authorities, violations of human rights. Fortunately, I had a large group of priests, nuns, and laymen whom I could trust, who would not betray me and knew how to keep silent. Their justice, honesty, and desire to help were guaranteed. They were very concerned about the affairs of the Church, but perhaps lacked experience.

    Not all people easily told or wrote about their troubles especially if they knew that their stories would be published in the Kronika. Often even very good people preferred to be unknown - they did not want to attract the attention of the KGB and maybe even face interrogation. Nevertheless, there were priests and laymen who very bravely supplied the material they had. One of them was the Rev. Bronius Laurinavičius.

    At first everyone did not understand why it was necessary to register and publicize the facts of persecution. Those who did not want to write about some event would make the excuse: "Everyone already knows what the Soviet authorities are doing!" But we wanted to present as many facts of brave opposition as possible so that other people could learn from them. Such articles in the Kronika especially helped people to overcome fear and decide to oppose evil.

     Hiding

    Some of the articles we received were written with a typewriter; people more aware of the situation would send the fourth or fifth copy. Nevertheless, the majority of the information was written by hand. There was a real danger that the KGB would find the original texts during a search and then be able to identify without great difficulty their authors. So, one of the major concerns was to hide the hand written texts very well and to rewrite them with a typewriter as quickly as possible. I examined my room scores of times and considered all possibilities, but failed to find a suitable hiding place. I did not dare to share my problems with the other good people living in the parish house and load them with such a problem. Perhaps, without reason? It was quite inconvenient and risky to give material to other people for concealment. I rejected this thought at least initially. Seeking a solution to the problem, I went to the Simnas church, where I walked from corner to corner,
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* Tiesa - the newspaper of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party.

examining attics, looking and looking... A hiding place had to be both secure and easily accessible. Thus, for several years the Lord hid a large number of hand written articles in the Simnas church. Upon receiving an article or a short news items, I would immediately wrap and place it in the most secure (as it seemed to me) place. After a while it would occur to me that the hiding place was not safe and I would look for a new place in which they would be safe from rats and evil people.

About Chronicles

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