George Matulaitis Journal

215 past the pastors of this diocese were more concerned with teaching the people Polish than with their salvation. From many people I have heard that it was the custom in this diocese to appoint priests to Lithuanian parishes who did not know a word of Lithuanian. For many years these priests would work there as pastors without bothering to learn the language. For example, in Daugai 1 almost everything in the parish was conducted in Polish until as late as 1904. March 4 On the feast of St. Casimir, I celebrated solemn high Mass at the Cathedral and conducted Vespers at St. Casimir’s Church. There I preached a sermon for the workers. This church has been restored by the efforts and even the financial contributions of the workers. Now that the Russians are gone, they will continue to keep the church functioning. They have already taken pains to remove a Russian construction—“the Royal Gates.” Many people came for Benediction. March 8 I sat in on some of the lectures at the seminary. I noticed that some professors arrived late for class or left early without finishing the lecture. Still others miss class entirely. At two o’clock I could barely find one professor giving a lecture. The others were absent because this was the first day after a break of several days, and so—“Prima lectio aut brevis aut nulla” ( The first lecture should either be short or omitted). Gradually I shall have to bring order into the seminary. 1 Daugai: a town in southern Lithuania, in the Diocese of Vilnius, the site of one of the oldest Lithuanian parishes in the country. The first church was built by Vytautas the Great in 1393, only a few years after Lithuania accepted Christianity. He himself had an estate there. In 1919, the town was the scene of battles between the Lithuanian army and the Bolsheviks and Poles in the struggle to maintain Lithuanian indepen- dence.