George Matulaitis Journal

Polish newspaper Nasz Kraj , nr. 199. The letter was published in the name of the Presidium of the Peoples Council of the People’s General Assembly from the Vilnius District. 1 This letter is written on behalf of all nationalities. It is full of lies and fallacies. I had never heard of any such elections of parish delegates as alleged in the letter. I asked the priests, and they had never heard of such elections either. I had expressly forbidden all the cler- gy—Lithuanian as well as Polish—to get involved in politics. Now some of the priests are being attacked unjustly. This so-called People’s Council has not sent any representatives in to see me. Some people have been here from several parishes, but not on behalf of any People’s Council. The present order of church services in the parishes is based on parish lists drawn up during the time of His Excellency Bishop von Ropp 2 and especially during the adminis- tration of Monsignor Michalkiewicz. 3 These lists of people by nationality had been confirmed by mixed Lithuanian-Polish committees and have been read aloud from the pulpits. Consequently, there is no need to change the present arrangements in the churches all over again. The very form of addressing me in this letter is inappropriate. Genuine Catholics do not address their bishop in such a fashion. It is clear that they want to intimidate me. All this is the work of the Border Guard. According to what I have been told, the Border Guard is calling its supporters and agents to attend meetings in some of the smaller towns and parishes and, afterwards, they vote for suitable delegates from among themselves to form an executive committee. And people who have been elected in this manner dare to represent the entire population and the interests of all the nationalities! The Communists also used to resort to such tactics. Always and everywhere they succeeded in ramming through only Communists during elections, as if other kinds of people did not even exist. 287 1 Prezydium Rady Ludowej, which seems to have been the executive committee of the larger body Powszechny Zjazd Ludowy Powiatu Wile < skiego . 2. Bishop Eduard von Ropp was Bishop of Vilnius from 1903 to 1907. He was exiled by the Russian authorities to St. Petersburg, but later allowed to live with relatives in Latvia. 3 When protests from the Vatican failed to reinstate Bishop von Ropp, Pope Pius X appointed Monsignor Michalkiewicz administrator of the diocese; he remained in this position from 1907 to June 1918.