George Matulaitis Journal

110 general. Since I did not know him very well, I had to be careful. I asked Grum who this K"pi<ski was, and he answered that he did not appear to have a religious vocation. The next day I took a walk with K"pi<ski and came to the same conclusion. However, nothing is impossible with God—he may yet acquire the necessary spirit. The other one—Father Araszkiewicz—I liked very much. November 25 In the morning, I visited the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel with K"pi<ski . I am not very fond of museums, but I wanted to walk through it at least, to get a general idea of the place. I prefer to visit churches, to meditate on the history of the Church, and to look at beautiful paintings on religious subjects. When I left the Vatican museum, my head felt heavy and there was a ringing in my ears. The trip was practically useless: I do not know anything about art. At about five in the afternoon I went to see Cardinal Vives y Tuto. I had prepared beforehand the points I wanted to cover. I told him about our Congregation and why I had moved from St. Petersburg to Fribourg. I did not have to go on too long, since it appeared that His Eminence was well aware of the situation of the Church in our part of the world. I also spoke of the impediments which the bishops place in the way of candidates wishing to join us: they go on about the shortage of priests and how people are dying without the sacraments. In fact, we intend to go back to work among our own people as far as possible. It would be no loss to the bishops. His Eminence the Cardinal remembered very well that I had visited him two years ago; he recalled that we had revived the Marian Congregation. 1 He was very kind and understanding. He said: last Thursday we spoke of your Congregation and granted you many things. He promised to support us and to help us in any way he could. Later, he gave me three of his books. I asked him not to forget us in the future, but to keep us under his fatherly protection and to grant 1 In July of 1909, Matulaitis made his first trip to Rome to get permission to revive the Marians and to make his own religious vows to become a member of the Congregation. This was granted by a decree of the Congregation for Religious on August 2, 1909.