George Matulaitis Journal

173 are not much of an army, but the Red Army is not much good either.” It appears that often people see only what they want to see. The Legionnaires have taken themselves off, and their leaders, backers, and supporters have left with them. They behaved in a truly juvenile manner—as badly as possible. One does not even know how to describe this campaign of theirs. All they have accomplished by their arrests, attacks, shooting squads, and house arrests is to antagonize the people. They have angered and annoyed the Jews, the Lithuanians, the Belorussians, and, most of all, the Bolsheviks. They have succeeded in provoking the rage and revenge of the Bolsheviks against innocent people. It is sad that the Poles of the older generation supported, encouraged, and believed in the Legionnaires, drawing the young people in as well. What is even worse is that many Polish priests became involved. One could say that they created and formed the Legionnaires. Here in Vilnius the priests are very much involved in politics. If it were not for them, the nobility could not do much on its own. Now many of the priests will probably have to flee, and they will bring down retributions on the Church and on the rest of the clergy. There is nothing worse than priests interfering in politics, especially here in Vilnius, where there are so many nationalities and parties. A priest must be father and pastor to everyone without exception. He cannot be a party man, or even worse, support political conspiracies. May God grant that this breed of priest- politician disappear from our beloved Church! Whenever I reflect on this, I cannot help thinking that one day the scourge of God will come to pun- ish us priests for this. January 6 As soon as I got up early in the morning, I could see small groups of Red Army soldiers in the street. Apart from these, the street was deserted. Here and there a few devout women, prayerbooks in hand, could be seen going to church or coming home. A few men and women had stepped outside their gates and were looking around timidly, surprised by the change. Eventually more and more people ventured out into the street. But this was not yesterday’s crowd, and the street had a different look about it. Yesterday, the Legionnaires