George Matulaitis Journal

301 unconscionable. When Father Steckiewicz returned from Warsaw, he did not come in to see me. Apparently, he did not wish to talk to me. I had always taken great pains to treat him with special gentleness and courtesy and even helped him in some minor matters as much as I could. Now he is telling everyone around town about the letter of resignation he submitted to me and is bragging about the heroic step he has just taken. May God bless and protect him! Of course, I released him, as he requested. March 4 I celebrated solemn Mass at the Cathedral. In the evening I preached to the Lithuanian students at St. Nicholas’s Church. 1 On Sundays during Lent I have been preaching on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ at four o’clock in the afternoon. On the 5th, 6th, and 7th of this month I also preached at the Cathedral. This was during the forty-hours devotion and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. March 16 His Excellency Archbishop Hryniewiecki has gone. He paid me a visit before he left, and I also called on him. We did not discuss anything in particular. The old man said that he was leaving because he did not feel well, and besides, where he was living the air from the courtyard was bad. As usual, he became somewhat agitated and could not stop talking about his illness and about how the doctors had removed one of his ribs. Then he talked about the old times when he was Bishop of Vilnius and how he had visited the parishes in the diocese under the Russians — always the same story. His age and senility are very pronounced. He also likes to talk about the unscrupulous administrators of the diocese who had preceded him and to touch upon political matters as well. In his day, forty 1 Built in the 14th century, it is one of the oldest Lithuanian churches in the country. Since the Lithuanian high school was next door it came to be known as the Lithuanian students’ church, since the students came for Mass here and their days of recollection were held here.