George Matulaitis Journal

National Democratic Party and especially by the Border Guard. By this means they hoped to intimidate me and some other Lithuanian priests. The Polish delegation from Giedraiciai came to see me once again. I told them that this kind of behavior is a mortal sin and that those who took part in the attack on the pastor are excommunicated. They returned once more, but I would not receive them. They were impossibly insolent. They demanded that there be nothing for the Lithuanians in church and that I appoint a Polish pastor who does not know a word of Lithuanian. With the help of the Border Guard, they sent delegates and letters to the nuncio 1 in Warsaw making accusations against me. Then I appointed two representatives of my own to investigate the matter: Father Kraujalis and Father Mi = kowski. It turned out that the Lithuanians in Giedraiciai were intimidated and many had signed up as Poles out of fear. Two persons were arrested because they admitted to being Lithuanian. Upon further investigation, it became clear that where Father Slab inskas was at fault was in his uncompromising character. The other accusations were groundless suspicions. On their way back from the nuncio in Warsaw, four delegates representing the three parishes of Inturke, Moletai, and Videniskiai came to see me and demanded that the order of services in their churches be changed. The accusations against the pastor of Inturke were especially vehement. Since the newly ordained Polish priest Father Stanislaw Mo ? ejko was on his way there, I asked him to make a thorough investigation of the situation at Inturke. It turned out that one of the accusers, a certain Ciesiul, is a worthless character. Under the Germans he had sided with them, but now he had become an ardent Pole. Mackiewicz, the ringleader of the troublemakers, was also a bad sort. He had been wandering around in Russia and had now become an agent of the Polish Border Guard. When I returned from Gardinas, this Mackiewicz came to see me with two other representatives demanding changes and removal of 283 1 Ratti was appointed Nuncio to Poland in June of 1919. On Oct. 28, he was consecrated bishop in Warsaw and also made titular Archbishop of Lepanto; Matulaitis had attended the ceremonies.