George Matulaitis Journal

154 their language. On the other hand, I did not want any rioting or scandals in church. And so, I again firmly expressed my opinion that the bull should be read in Belorussian and that the Chapter should reconsid- er the matter thoroughly. To the Chapter I delegated the responsibility of determining the order of the greetings given by the different delegations, since it was the host, and I, for my part, requested only that it try to make peace among the various national groups so that there would be no unpleasantness. I stayed in Kaunas all week since it was awkward to return to Marijampole. I studied the ritual for the ceremonies. For two days I went to Panemune, to Father Staugaitis’s 1 parish, where I could quietly prepare the addresses to be given at the installation in the Vilnius Cathedral. From Vilnius I got word that the Poles wanted to use the occasion of my installation to stage a nationalist demonstration and that the Germans would not permit this under any circumstances. Rioting and bloodshed were likely to result. Because of this situation, I was advised to go to Vilnius not on the morning of December 8th, as planned, but on the previous evening by express train which arrives at six p.m. I wrote to Monsignor Michalkiewicz to investigate the matter and then advise me what to do. I suspected that political conflict was behind it all. Consequently, in spite of everything, I was determined to travel to Vilnius on the morning of December 8. That is what I did when I learned from the Chapter that no such situation existed in Vilnius. It seems that the Germans did not want me to go on the morning of the 8th. If I had traveled the previous evening, I was promised a separate compartment, but in the morning they did not give me one and I was bare- ly able to get a train ticket. Along the way I was greeted by the pastor of Lentvaris and his parishioners. When I arrived at the Vilnius train station, I was met by the representatives of the Cathedral Chapter, the Lithuanian Council, 1 Justinas Staugaitis (1866-1943): had gone to school in Marijampole and attended the Seminary of Sejny. Ordained in 1890, he worked in various parishes in southern Lithuania and Poland. As curate in Marijampole in 1905-1906, he was one of the founders of the Z iburys society; in 1917 he was elected a mem- ber of the Lithuanian Council; in 1916-26, he was pastor of the church in Panemune, a small town outside Kaunas on the left bank of the Nemunas river. In 1926, he was consecrated bishop.