George Matulaitis Journal

308 they regard Father Petrovski in a different light. The Belorussians are no longer supported, but are repressed and persecuted. It is difficult when a bishop has to treat his priests according to the attitudes and whims of various governments: to remove, transfer, and punish them accordingly. Mr. Uzquiano also mentioned Father Górski, the former Dean of A mena and now just the pastor there. I had to explain to him what sort of man this Father Górski was and how all the priests of the deanery had been up in arms and demanded that he be removed from the office of dean. Just as, formerly, Father Górski had gone against Monsignor Michalkiewicz and had written him anonymous letters, so now has he come out against me, accusing me to the General [Mokrzecki] and inciting the people against me and other priests. Finally, Mr. Uzquiano mentioned Father Abaravi ius, the present Dean of A mena and pastor of Ziupronys. I replied: “Here too, I cannot see that I have committed such a great crime against the Church or against Polish interests. Father Abaravi ius had been Dean of A mena under the Russian regime. He had been expelled and persecuted only because he had organized a procession without permission. After all, Ziupronys is in an area populated by Belorussians, and Abaravi ius knows Belorussian. He has not supported the Lithuanians. Perhaps in some of his speeches he has irritated the Poles because, as I have heard, he is of Lithuanian orientation. It is difficult to appoint priests according to their political convictions. There has been talk that not only the lay people, but also the clergy have been campaigning against me and spreading false and inap- propriate rumors, etc.” It turned out that Mr. Uzquiano understood the difficult situation of the bishop in Vilnius very well indeed. When the Bolsheviks took over, almost all the Polish priests fled and large areas of the various deaneries were left without priests. Then I really did have to assign Belorussian and Lithuanian priests because most of them had remained in their places. Mr. Uzquiano has taken note of the intensity of Polish chauvinism: