PERSECUTION IN LITHUANIA

...Through arbitrary administrative rulings, the misapplication of statutes, and the existence of vague or imaginary rulings, the authorities have seriously undermined the clergy's performance of religious duties...

...Some relevant facts should be kept in mind in this connection...

...According to figures Richard J. krickus teaches political science at Mary Washington College in Virginia and is the author of Pursuing the American Dream (Anchor/Doubleday...

...Finally, it is the Soviet government, not the editors of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, who have ignored the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the Helsinki accord...

...Those fortunate enough to reach the United States represented a range of political views left, center and right, but few Lithuanian DPs could forget that during World War II and its aftermath 300,000 of their countrymen were deported to Siberia and Northern Russia and that about 50,000 were killed resisting the Soviets in postwar years...

...In contrast with the Russian intellectual dissidents, the Lithuanian Catholic civil rights activists have attracted mass support for their cause...

...They were emboldened by the activities of Russian intellectuals like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, protest on the part of Jews and other ethnic minorities, and the "Czechoslovakian spring...

...In good conscience, it is the only thing they can choose to do...

...Although an atheist, Sevrukas on another occasion had protested the arrest of young Catholic dissidents associated with the circulation of underground material...

...Yet the number of Catholic churches in Lithuania has dropped from 717 in 1940 to 628 in 1975, the number of archbishops and bishops from ten to four...

...The most effective exponents of nationalism among the Soviet Union's ethnic minorities belong to the new Soviet elite -scientists, scholars, university students, and even prominent figures in the party-not the traditional pre-World War II nationalistic elite...

...Their opposition to detente does not constitute a desire for a violent clash between the Soviet Union and the United States, bringing about the nuclear holocaust every sane person in the world fears...

...Available statistics bear out this conclusion...

...It is significant that it has been the policy of the Catholic activists to work within the Soviet legal system...

...The reaction of American Jewry to the plight of their coreligionists in the USSR serves as a model which the American Catholic community should emulate...

...It is against this backdrop that the question of why the American Catholic community has adopted an indifferent attitude toward the Chronicle deserves to be scrutinized...

...Unfortunately there are members of the church hierarchy as well as the lay community whose indifference stems from this fact...

...On one occasion he had assisted the mother of Simas Kudirka, the Lithuanian sailor who made an abortive attempt to jump ship off the Massachusetts coast, in her effort to secure her son's release from prison...

...With the Chronicle's publication there is no reason this condition should persist...

...in 1958 the respective percentages were 81 percent, 64 percent, 79 percent...

...To what appears to be a majority of Lithuanians, their Roman Catholic faith is an integral part of that culture...

...After convincing the Austrian government that his story was authentic, Sevrukas boarded a plane for Rome...

...Soviet theorists, though to a lesser degree than most Western social scientists, have underestimated the importance of ethnicity in human behavior or at the very least have adhered to the notion that ethnic group identity is unique to capitalism and that in a "socialistic" society ethnic ties and values are superseded by more progressive social relations and universalistic norms...

...But both these explanations are faulty because many Catholic liberals and conservatives are authentic exponents of their respective positions...

...Consequently, information pertaining to Russian Jewry is available in abundance and the average American Catholic probably knows more about the oppression of Soviet Jews than he does about Catholics in the Soviet Union suffering similar mistreatment...

...Catholics and Marxists in Lithuania today would like to break loose from the crushing embrace of the Russians, but their politics runs closer to the left than to the right...

...Specifically, insofar as they recognize their "nationality" problem, Soviet spokesmen imply that it involves the struggle between particularistic nationalism versus universalistic socialism...

...It is believed that some of the first protest documents produced by Catholic priests to reach the West were carried out by emigrating Lithuanian Jews...

...This line has an appealing humanistic ring to it and strikes a sympathetic chord in the hearts and minds of many non-Marxist Western intellectuals who associate ethnicity with nationalism which in turn contributed to two global wars in the twentieth century...

...In 1940 Lithuania's population was 3 million, while today it is about 3.2 million...

...To claim as the Russian leaders have that counterrevolutionaries are responsible for ethnic discontent in the USSR just does not bear up under the evidence...

...Youngsters, the priority target of the government's atheistic campaign, who demonstrate their faith are also treated arbitrarily and harshly...

...This brings us to an observation not previously mentioned: many Americans who are champions of civil liberties, religious freedom, and the rule of law do not believe anything can be done to assist persecuted Catholics in the USSR...

...an equal number of liberals accept the oppression of Catholics in the USSR as "a sad fact of life" about which nothing can be done...

...Peter's Basilica (which he continued in New York) to draw attention to Catholic persecution in Lithuania...

...gathered by Soviet researchers in 1964, 58 percent of the newborn in Lithuania were baptized, and 38 percent of all marriages and 60 percent of all funerals were conducted in church and administered by priests...

...The "militants" argued that as things stood, the church was doomed to that fate unless the Catholics resisted the state's atheistic drive...

...They hoped, moreover, that the Chronicle would be widely circulated in the West where it would attract the attention of the large and powerful American Catholic community in particular...

...Its publication came about as a result of a "moderate/militant" split in the Lithuanian Catholic community...

...Devout adult Catholics who attend church, possess religious literature and display religious articles are interrogated by security agents, physically blocked from traveling to church, threatened with arrest, lose their jobs and pensions and are incarcerated in mental institutions...

...and whereas there were 1,480 priests in 1940, in 1974 765 priests were active...

...One can muster ample evidence to support both views, but they are overstated...

...The campaign of French and Italian Communists to project a new liberal image to voters in France and Italy may also work in behalf of the Lithuanian Catholics...

...But in a closed society this was a difficult and dangerous undertaking, so they smuggled the Chronicle abroad to have its contents beamed back to the Soviet Union via Western broadcasts...

...And those who fear that such a campaign will endanger detente should remember that the Soviet government and not the Catholic militants have violated Soviet law guaranteeing the right to practice the religion of one's choice...

...The first, Russian chauvinism (the Great Russians have disproportionate influence in all areas of Soviet life), already has been mentioned...

...For there is abundant evidence worldwide, in developed and less developed, communist and non-communist societies alike, that demonstrates the tenacity of ethnicity...

...In an attempt to discredit the militant Lithuanian Catholics, moderate prelates speaking favorably about the Kremlin's attitude toward the church gave interviews to reporters from Western communist newspapers, such as L'Humanite and La Unita...

...And young, devout Marxist-Leninists born during and reared under Soviet rule have lent their voice to the Catholic civil rights movement...

...The Chronicle documents the persecution of Catholics in violation of domestic Soviet law and international agreements to which Russia is party, such as the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and the Helsinki agreement...

...Like many Americans, including supporters of detente, they proclaim rather that the West must make a concerted effort to see to it that the Soviets abide by the agreements they sign...

...the second is that a group's language, culture and shared historical experiences (the components of what MITs Harold Isaacs calls "basic group identity") are vital to the psychic and social welfare of its members...

...this has involved restrictions on hearing confessions, conducting funerals and Mass, administering last rites, celebrating holy days, providing religious instruction, printing church literature, selling religious objects, caring for church property and securing funds...

...Western scholars have been pretty much in agreement with Soviet analysts, although they have asserted that modernization and not socialism will eradicate ethnicity...

...PERSECUTION IN LITHUANIA RICHARD J. KRICKUS A plea for help from American Catholics Since March of 1972, "militant" priests, nuns and laity in Lithuania have been documenting the persecution of Catholics in that country, through a journal called the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania...

...The self-immolation of Romas Kalanta, a Catholic student/worker, in particular had a profound, traumatic impact upon Lithuanians from all walks of life...

...In this connection, a major contributing factor is the paucity of information available pertaining to the plight of Catholics in the USSR...

...Leonid Plyushch, a Russian emigre who denounced Soviet repression, has praised the French Communist party for helping him obtain his freedom...

...Moreover, even those who question the feasibility of such an effort cannot ignore the fact that American Catholics living in a free and open society have a moral obligation to speak out against anti-Catholic oppression in the Soviet Union...

...It was only after such requests were brushed aside or ignored that the militants decided to publish a samizdat (self-publishing) Chronicle documenting the government's illegal anti-Catholic activities...

...Whatever the sensitivity of the Soviet Union to opinion outside its borders, Western Communists will not press Moscow to provide greater religious liberties to Catholics in the USSR unless Western Catholics mount a serious protest campaign against anti-Catholicism in the Soviet Union...

...And, while official Soviet data must be handled cautiously, there is no doubt that the anti-church campaign has caused many Catholic laymen to turn away from the religion of their parents...

...It is for similar reasons that Lithuanians, including dedicated Marxists, are prepared to risk imprisonment or even death to preserve their national culture...

...But what about those Catholics of various political persuasions, the staunch anti-Communists and the steadfast champions of civil liberties who have obvious reasons to take up the cause of the Lithuanian Catholic civil rights activists...

...After the young martyr killed himself in a Kaunas park, muted discontent was channeled into purposeful public resistance to state oppression...

...There are numerous reasons for this disparity in coverage, but the failure of the American Catholic community to publicize the Chronicle and to publish material pertaining to its contents is the single most important one...

...They have neither lived up to this part of the agreement nor have they honored the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights to which they are party, and this is what the Lithuanians are protesting...

...While most Lithuanians who fled their homeland in the face of the advancing Red Army were anti-Soviet, many had fought both the Nazis and die Russians...

...And as the West Virginia parents who opposed the use of textbooks they deemed anti-religious, subversive and destructive of family life have demonstrated, people will fight to preserve values and a way of life that gives purpose to then-existence in the same way they will fight to protect their property or resist economic exploitation...

...Thus in Lithuania the Chronicle suggests that young professionals and students, not older traditional elements, are among the most militant advocates of nationalism...

...Despite the best efforts of the KGB, resulting in numerous persons being arrested and imprisoned, publication of the Chronicle continues...

...The Lithuanian Catholics are only asking their government to allow them to enjoy religious liberties which the letter of Soviet law guarantees...

...Many Americans do not know that prior to the 1940 Soviet occupation Lithuania was an independent state...

...The Russians are not happy about recent statements by Georges Marchais, the French Communist Party leader, and his counterpart in the Italian Communist party Enrico Berlinguer, proclaiming a "democratic road to socialism...

...The Kremlin's reaction to rising discontent among Lithuanian Catholics is also instructive...

...Since the single existing seminary is not producing sufficient graduates to replenish the clergy's shrinking ranks (in 1972 six priests were ordained, while twice that many died), the number of active priests will continue to slide...

...Both are guilty of perpetuating a serious intellectual and empirical error...

...Nonetheless, the American media for all intents and purposes have ignored the Chronicle and, with the exception of articles printed in local Catholic newspapers, the Catholic media have not done much better...

...Catholic protest, along with that of dissident intellectuals and Russian Jews demanding the right of emigration, was interfering with Brezhnev's efforts to secure political and economic concessions from the West...

...Until 1972 when news from Soviet Lithuania reached the West via leaks from the intelligence community, isolated articles, and stray reports from emigres, the Western public was not privy to a great deal of pertinent information...

...This is a goal Catholics in the West should champion...

...Political pundits disagree about whether or not pressure from Western Jewry has prompted the Kremlin to adopt a softer line toward Jews in the USSR, but many students of the Soviet Union believe it has helped...

...For example, Soviet authorities displayed concern about Catholic protest early in the 1970s after several petitions circulated by the Catholic militants attracted mass support...

...There are two explanations for this phenomenon...

...On several occasions militant Catholics, workers, and students have taken to the streets and in the spring of 1972 several protest suicides occurred...

...But the Western Communists do have some influence in Moscow...

...His name was Vaclovas Sevrukas and he was a 34-year-old instructor of Marxism-Leninism at the University of Leningrad's extension in Kaunas...

...Jewish organizations-orthodox and reformed -and individuals-liberals and conservatives, intellectuals and businessmen-have spent millions of dollars and devoted priceless talent and energy to publicize the Kremlin's mistreatment of Jews...

...The truth is that the rule of law is the only real safeguard against the nightmare of a nuclear war or an oppressive world order which subverts civil liberties and the human spirit...

...The editors sought to mobilize Catholics behind their cause by circulating the Chronicle in Lithuania...

...In a two-year period early in the 1970s over 50,000 Lithuanians courageously signed petitions protesting the government's anti-church campaign...

...as of 1972 approximately 300 of this number were 60-years-old and over...

...Hed-rick Smith, for example, author of the highly acclaimed book, The Russians, has stated categorically that the Soviet leaders are not indifferent to Western public opinion...

...An additional though more elusive explanation for indifference in the United States toward the plight of Lithuanian and other ethnic minorities in the USSR is rooted in the Western humanistic tradition...

...This ignorance unquestionably has contributed to acceptance of Soviet propaganda that Lithuania always has been an integral part of the Russian and Soviet empires and that the "Lithuanian question" is an internal matter, not a question of imperialism and international law...

...The former argued that even though the Soviets' anti-church campaign had done grevious harm to the church's infrastructure and had intimidated and demoralized lay Catholics, it was better to exist under these conditions than to offer resistance and risk extinction altogether...

...Lithuanian-American priests have translated the Chronicle into English so there is no language barrier, and the Catholic media network in the United States is extensive, so the task of disseminating the Chronicle's contents does not pose a problem...

...So too is the prevailing view among many Americans that the Lithuanian DPs tend to be extreme right-wingers...

...Thus far twenty issues have reached the United States, where Lithuanian-American priests have translated the underground material into English...

...They circulated petitions, wrote letters of protest demanding that their right of freedom of conscience be honored, and resisted the orders of superiors who kowtowed to the authorities...

...Prior to his arrival in the West, he had had frequent run-ins with Soviet authorities...

...On both sides of the Iron Curtani, rising ethnic self-awareness, what has been called the "new ethnicity," can be attributed in large part to those social forces-urbanization, industrialization and literacy-which previously were deemed destructive of ethnic ties...

...That the Lithuanian-American community does not constitute a sizable voting bloc in the United States and is divided between the "old immigrants" whose ancestors arrived early in the century and the "new immigrants," the displaced persons (DPs) who touched our shores since the end of World War II, is also a contributing factor...

...But to a growing number of Lithuanians and other ethnic minorities residing in the USSR, the real problem is not one of particularism versus universalism, but Russian chauvinism and the refusal of the Kremlin to adhere to the pluralistic (and universalistic) precepts which have a legal basis under Soviet law...

...He has become a symbol for both groups and his immolation has helped link people who previously thought they had little in common and often were at odds with one another...

...The feeble clout of the Lithuanian community has already been mentioned...

...Their demands-calling for the elimination of policies restricting the clergy and lay Catholics in their pursuit of religious freedom- are all guaranteed by the Soviet and Lithuanian constitutions...

...Lithuanians, urban and rural, young and old, believers and non-believers alike risking imprisonment, economic security and educational opportunities have lent their support to the Chronicle's publication and dissemination...

...It is against this backdrop that American Catholics should lend their voice to the cause of the Catholic civil rights movement in Lituania...

...And there are otherwise sophisticated political commentators who are unaware of the "legal basis" for Soviet occupation of Lithuania: a secret protocol to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact...

...Several general explanations come to mind...

...Unwittingly it works in behalf of the Kremlin's policy toward national (non-Russian) minorities...

...How can we explain their silence...

...Ignorance about Lithuania in the United States, even its recent history, is widespread...

...Upon his arrival in the Holy City, he began a hunger strike at St...

...This silence is in marked contrast to the media's extensive coverage of the mistreatment of Soviet Jews...

...In "Basket Three" of the Helsinki agreement, the Soviets pledged to recognize human rights...

...An individual's identity, the formation of his personality, and the values which give meaning to his life are shaped by group affinities...

...It was with this data in mind that in the mid-1960s a significant number of Lithuanian Catholics parted company with the moderates and banded together to resist the Kremlin's anti-Catholic campaign...

...In the fall of 1974 Jewish authorities in Vienna, upon meeting a plane from Russia, were dumbfounded when a young man on the list of "Jewish emigres" refused to make the last leg of the trip to Israel...

...The anniversary of Kalanta's death has resulted in annual public protests conducted by Catholics and non-Catholics alike...

...The fact that many "anti-Communists" in the United States are only interested in exploiting the threat of "international Communism" to achieve domestic political gains, while others in the hierarchy are fearful of stirring up the "ethnics" in the church, may explain the conservatives' silence...

...Some conservatives remain mute because "the totalitarian Soviet leadership cannot be influenced by Western opinion...

...The right-wing reputation of the Lithuanian DPs in the United States, the fear that calling the Russians to task for anti-Catholic persecution may jeopardize detente, and animosity toward "ethnic particularism" may explain the liberals' indifference...

...He said he was not a Jew and wanted to go to Rome...

...By adhering to the Soviet constitution and international law, the Kremlin will be promoting detente and fostering the spirit of rapprochement...

...By exiling him, Soviet officialdom hoped to get rid of a troublemaker whose support of the Catholics undermined Moscow's claims that they were anti-socialist subversives...

...Most are socialists, not capitalists...

...This unfair view, to which the author clung for many years, complements Soviet propaganda that the Lithuanian Catholic activists are a small group of reactionaries bent on overthrowing the Soviet system and agents provocateurs who represent a threat to detente...