George Matulaitis Journal

145 Vilnius, while Monsignor Dambrauskas 1 was in second place. However, my own candidacy had also been proposed, supposedly by His Excellency Bishop Von Ropp 2 and some of the Polish bishops. 3 I had to go to present myself to the German authorities. Von Altmann was in charge of matters pertaining to religion. He questioned me very thoroughly for quite a long time. I said I wanted to go to Marijampole and stay there. He said that the German government was not opposed to this. I added that I was a religious and intended to conduct a novitiate there. This I stated only in passing because I could easily gather from our conversation that the Germans had collected plenty of information about me. They were interested in me, since I was one of the proposed candidates for bishop. When I returned to pick up the travel permit, however, Von Altmann was unwilling to give it to me for fear that I had come to Lithuania from Warsaw to stir up trouble. In his attempt to deny me the permit, he tried various arguments: that I had to get written permission from the Bishop of Kielce; that the consent of the Bishop of Sejny was necessary; and also that I needed the approval of the Lithuanian Council 4 in order to found a religious institution. I replied that His Excellency the Bishop of Sejny had invited me and would gladly welcome me. Permission from the Bishop of Kielce was not necessary because, as a religious, I was responsible only to the Holy Father. The Lithuanian Council would not interfere in this matter because I was not introducing a new religious community. The Marian Congregation had existed in Marijampole before and now it was there again. Its members were reassembling after having been dispersed for a time. Then I demanded quite vehemently that he stop obstructing my trip to Marijampole. He replied that he would consult with His Excellency the Bishop of Kaunas and others. The next day, after speaking with the Bishop, Von Altmann issued a permit for fifteen days, adding that it could be extended by the authorities in Marijampole. 1 Alexandras Dambrauskas-Jak tas (1860-1938): worked in Kaunas as a professor, writer, and editor. 2 Eduard von Ropp (1851-1939): Bishop of Vilnius (1903-1907). Exiled by the Russian government, he lived in St. Petersburg and in Latvia until 1917, when he was appointed Archbishop of Mogilev. 3 Patriarch W=adys=aw Zaleski and others. Nuncio Pacelli told the Lithuanian delegation which had approached him, that Matulaitis was more acceptable to the Vatican than the militant Ol auskas, who was constantly in conflict with both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. 4 The Lithuanian Council of twenty members with Antanas Smetona as its Chairman, was an executive body elected in 1917 in Vilnius. It declared the independence of Lithuania on February 16, 1918. Its mandate was to achieve actual independence and it was taking steps to do so. The Lithuanians were determined to recover Vilnius as their ancient capital and wanted a Lithuanian appointed bishop.