George Matulaitis Journal

On February 23 two men from the parish of Ratnycia 1 came to see me. They asked permission to build a small church in the village of Pervalkai. The pastors of both Ratnycia and Druskininkai are in favor. I agreed and gave permission. I asked Father Bernotas, the pastor of Ratnycia, to supervise the work until a priest was assigned. It is significant that these two men did not dare speak to me in Lithuanian. They inquired among the servants how they should address me. How could one possibly address such an eminent person in Lithuanian? I encouraged these poor people by taking the initiative and speaking to them in Lithuanian. I asked them to please be seated, then I inquired what was new in their part of the country and how they were doing. Their faces lit up and, when they left, they were very happy that the bishop is not at all snobbish. From their speech it was evident that the Lithuanians in Ratnycia have taken to using Belorussian expressions. They are ignorant and ashamed of their own language. The last name of both of these people was Tartakis. On the morning of February 24th I visited the seminary 2 and sat in on the first two lectures: Holy Scripture 3 and Moral Theology. 4 It appears that the professors lecture and examine the students only in Polish. However, I noticed that they were using Latin textbooks. I shall have to find out if these seminarians know any Latin. Earlier, I used to hear the priests complain that everything at the seminary had been polonized and that only the Polish language was used; even Latin had been discarded. On the 26th and the 27th the Bolsheviks conducted searches and closed many shops. They even searched private homes looking for stores of food and other useful things like clothing, shoes, harnesses, and so on. Yesterday, the city seemed deserted and looked empty. Today, many shops have opened and more people are walking about in the streets. 211 1 Ratnycia: a small town in southern Lithuania, 3 km from the resort town of Druskininkai. The people were Lithuanian and Belorussian. 2 The Vilnius Seminary was an old and venerable institution founded in 1582. It had a stormy history, as did Vilnius itself. Before WW I, it flourished under Bishop Ropp in 1903-1907; he allowed both Lithuanian and Polish to be taught, while the regular courses were taught in Latin. Then there were 150 seminarians, half of whom were Lithuanian. After 1912, the situation changed and the number of Lithuanians decreased. During the war the Seminary was closed for a time, but then reopened. It now had a seven-year program, but was plagued by nationalist conflict and financial difficulties, and the general instability affected the work of the professors. 3 Taught by the rector himself, Canon Jan U szy==o . 4 Taught by Father Antoni Cich o<s ki.