IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
VILNIUS, Lithuania (CNS) — In Lithuania, a nation that
experienced invasions, atrocities and persecution, Pope Francis began his visit
with a plea to break down walls of suspicion and fear.
“If we look at the world scene in our time, more and
more voices are sowing division and confrontation — often by exploiting insecurity
or situations of conflict — and proclaiming that the only way possible to
guarantee security and the continued existence of a culture is to try to
eliminate, cancel or expel others,” the pope said Sept. 22.
Going directly from the airport to the Lithuania’s
presidential palace, Pope Francis’ first appointment was with the president,
government authorities and civic leaders.
He acknowledged the country’s painful past, which included
“numerous trials and sufferings: detentions, deportations and even
martyrdom.” But he also praised the country’s culture and people for
tenaciously resisting attacks on its freedom.
The pope’s visit Sept. 22-25 to Lithuania, Latvia and
Estonia comes in the year the three Baltic nations are celebrating the 100th
anniversary of their declarations of independence after World War I. While
declared Soviet republics in 1940, the countries were occupied by the Nazis during
World War II and then lived under Soviet rule from 1944 to 1990.
Pope Francis, addressing national leaders, said that until
the Nazis and Soviets arrived, people of a variety of national backgrounds and
religions lived peacefully in Lithuania.
The “totalitarian ideologies,” though, “by
sowing violence and lack of trust, undermined this ability to accept and
harmonize differences,” he said. As Lithuanians consolidate their
independence and democracy, they must return to those earlier cultural values of
“tolerance, hospitality, respect and solidarity.”
Lithuanians, the pope said, know firsthand what happens
when a political ideology tries “to impose a single model that would annul
differences under the pretense of believing that the privileges of a few are
more important than the dignity of others or the common good.”
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