George Matulaitis Journal

214 Today, March 2nd, the Bolsheviks released eighteen persons who had been arrested at St. Casimir’s Church in connection with Father Muckermann. Miss Grudzinska is still in prison. March 3 Father Cijunaitis, 1 pastor of Vievis (Jewje), came to consult with me about various matters. During the war his parish was a battleground with a trench running right through it and as a result was practically devastat- ed. The people go begging for bread from the Lithuanians in Kaunas. It is an ethnically mixed parish: some of the people still speak Lithuanian, but many have become polonized or assimilated into the Belorussians. This is not surprising, considering that Cijunaitis is only the second Lithuanian pastor sent to work there. Father Radusis preceded him; he was Lithuanian. In the past, only Polish priests had been assigned to this parish. But now, while begging among the people in Kaunas, the parishioners have gone back to their native tongue. For a while some Polish Legionnaires stayed in the parish. They tore down the Lithuanian sign on the the Lithuanian Children’s Home, but when the pastor scolded and shamed them, they apologized for their bad behavior. The Lithuanian children are taught catechism in Lithuanian, while those who speak Polish are taught in Polish. The pastor had even begun to preach in Lithuanian, something that had not been done before. Father Cijunaitis himself comes from the famous parish of Joniskis. 2 There used to be a pastor there by the name of Petrowski, who tried to polonize and denationalize the people with furious energy. He would not allow little children to receive their First Communion until they had learned Polish. Father Cijunaitis’s parents told him how they had gone to learn their catechism in Polish from the ages of eight to eighteen before the pastor would allow them to receive First Communion. They were pure Lithuanians and did not know any Polish. Indeed, it is evident that in the 1 Matas (Matthew Cijunaitis) (1886-1955): attended Vilnius Seminary, ordained in 1909. A capable and dedicated pastor, eventually he became canon and one of Bishop Kukta’s assistants in Kaisiadorys in 1926. 2 Joniskis: a town in northwestern Lithuania; under czarist rule, Joni kis was governed by a Russian, Count Zubov, but the Lithuanian people resisted and caused so much trouble that the Russian government was forced to grant it self-rule. The parish is very old, founded in 1522.