George Matulaitis Journal

God will not permit this to go unpunished. If the wind should change, we may yet hear them singing “The Red Banner” 1 in church. There has already been such an incident at the W=oc=awek Cathedral, where after a religious service some young fellows started up the song “Konopnicki’s Troops,” directed against the Germans. The organ barely drowned out the singers’ voices. One of the sisters complained about her superior, who came from Poland and was an ardent Polish patriot. She is educating the girls in a spirit of unhealthy nationalism. The sisters of St. Mary Magdalene take in fallen girls to help them straighten out their lives and also accept decent girls who are poor. As a rule they never take their girls out to public functions and even the Sisters’ Constitutions do not allow this. However, both the superior and the girls took part in the famous Corpus Christi procession, which the Poles of Vilnius turned into a political demonstration and because of which Monsignor Michalkiewicz was exiled by the Germans. 2 That sister also complained that during her novitiate in Kraków, the other novices would often make fun of her and call her names like “detestable Lithuanian.” They hurt her feelings. She herself was Polish and did not know a word of Lithuanian, although she had been born and grew up in Vilnius. That was why she could never get along with the Polish Sisters who came from Poland. The evil that results from this unhealthy nationalism is evident everywhere. I also noticed it when visiting the institutions of which Sister Czarnowska is in charge. She belongs to the Sisters of the Holy Family at Nazareth. I have not come across such chauvinism even in Poland. It is partly due to the persecution practiced by the Russian government; it created this fanatical nationalist sensitivity and chauvin- ism, which is unsound nevertheless. Fathers Kuleszo 3 and Chomski 4 have considerable influence on the Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene, while Father Lubianiec has a similar influence on the Nazarenes. 213 1 A Communist song. 2 The procession took place June 21, 1918, and was organized by Msgr. Michalkiewicz; patriotic speech- es and songs turned it into a political demonstration. The Germans arrested Michalkiewicz and exiled him to the Maria Laach monastery in Germany. He returned to Vilnius in the autumn of 1918. 3 Adam Kuleszo (1881-1952): a graduate of the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg, ordained in 1904; long-term pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit, popularly called the Dominican church. He taught religion in various Polish high schools and was an active supporter of the Polish National Democratic Party. 4 Leopold Chomski (1885-1982): attended Vilnius Seminary and the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg; ordained in 1910. From 1919 to 1931, he was chaplain of the prestigious Polish boys high school named after Sigismund Augustus, ruler of Lithuania and Poland. He was also a professor at Vilnius Seminary.