George Matulaitis Journal

were not even mentioned because, ostensibly, the Bolsheviks would not recognize any other type of association. After I had heard it out, I said that this was contrary to Canon Law and that I had no authority to approve such statutes or associations, nor could I give them to any priest. Consequently, I decided that it would be better to put off this matter for a while, to wait and see what actually develops. As for me, wherever I could, I advised the priests that if the Bolsheviks should try to take over Church property, they ought to form parish councils to defend, but not to control it. I asked them to explain to the people that this property belongs to the parish and not to the pastor. Should the Bolsheviks confiscate parish property, the parishioners would have to find other means to support their priest and the church. With the loss of Church property, a new burden would fall on the shoulders of the parish- ioners. On many estates the Bolsheviks had already organized councils made up of farmhands and workers. But so far, they have not touched Church property anywhere. I am even more concerned about the teaching of religion in the schools. As soon as they got here, the Bolsheviks began threatening to pass a decree according to which all religious symbols, religion as a subject and its teachers, the priests, would be banished from the schools. In some places they have already begun to carry this out. The people were incensed, and everywhere they vociferously demanded that religion cannot be abolished and that schools must remain as they are. They say that if religion and the priests are driven out of the schools, they will refuse to send their children. I heard that in one place (I think it was in the town of Svencionys) the Bolshevik Commissar replaced the Catholic principal of a secondary school with a Bolshevik who ran the school as he saw fit. When the older children saw what was going on, they went home, while the younger ones, forced into the school, started crying. Realizing that the school would soon cease to function, the Commissar restored the previous staff, and order returned to the school. I told the priests that they should organize parents’ committees at the schools; let the parents themselves defend their rights and demand that their children be taught religion. At the same time, I read everything I could get on this subject so that I would not transgress 179