George Matulaitis Journal

view in Rzeczpospolita to turn the people against the Lithuanians, Belorussians, and Jews. He then repeated it in the G=os Wile<ski . This caused a general furor and a great deal of polemics in the newspapers that did not quiet down for a long time. The “endeks” shamelessly used the old man for their own purpose. They took him to the workers meetings (i.e., the Workers’ League founded by the Jesuits) and Father Olsza < ski’s Christian Unions and also to the children’s homes to make speeches. Or, they would gather the country folk together from various places and bring the old man in to bless them and to enlighten them about proper political convictions. In the hands of the “endeks” the honorable old man was turned into a common political agitator. It was very sad and also detrimental to the Church. I got the brunt of it as well. The old man, speaking somewhere near a church, in the street, or at a meeting hall to a group of old ladies or some ordinary people, would publicly rebuke me and the other priests on various matters. In other words, he sometimes directed his campaign against me. I found out that he had turned some of the more prominent people, even General Mokrzecki, against me. Unable to calm down, he went around everywhere, even to the editorial offices of the Polish newspapers and headquarters of the various organizations, speaking as he had been directed by the “endeks.” Everywhere he spoke out against Lithuanians, Belorussians, Jews, and Masons, nor did he overlook me. He created a good deal of trouble for me and for some of the other priests. He conducted a campaign on behalf of the National Democrats. When he was here, during the first Polish occupation, he came out against me in public and also attacked some of the other priests with various rebukes and other nonsense. The fact is that wishing to honor him as a martyr, I invited the Archbishop with a group of priests to my house. He used this opportunity to blast out at us like a gramophone, accusing us of all kinds of things he had heard against me and some other priests. Naturally, one has to forgive the old man everything. The real fault lies with those who exploited his old age for their own unscrupulous ends. Still, the old man himself was something of a 303