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Gorbachev's Perestroika Is A Hoax

"The West has committed a serious error: It is trusting Gorbachev," stated Vincentas Cardinal Sladkevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Bishops Conference, who arrived in Rome on January 25. The courageous Cardinal has personally experienced the religious persecution of peoples subjected to the Soviet communist regime. He was ordained bishop by Theophilius Matulionis, Bishop of Kaisiadrys, who was jailed for 16 years in concentration camps and later died a martyr's death in exile, far from his diocese.

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117 views3 pages

Gorbachev's Perestroika Is A Hoax

"The West has committed a serious error: It is trusting Gorbachev," stated Vincentas Cardinal Sladkevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Bishops Conference, who arrived in Rome on January 25. The courageous Cardinal has personally experienced the religious persecution of peoples subjected to the Soviet communist regime. He was ordained bishop by Theophilius Matulionis, Bishop of Kaisiadrys, who was jailed for 16 years in concentration camps and later died a martyr's death in exile, far from his diocese.

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The Fatima Center
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Gorbachev's Perestroika is a Hoax

The Testimony of Cardinal Sladkevicius


"The West has committed a serious error: It is trusting Gorbachev," stated
Vincentas Cardinal Sladkevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Bishops
Conference, who arrived in Rome on January 25. The courageous Cardinal has
personally experienced the religious persecution of peoples subjected to the
Soviet communist regime. He was ordained bishop by Theophilius Matulionis,
Bishop of Kaisiadrys, who was jailed for 16 years in concentration camps and
later died a martyr's death in exile, far from his diocese.
Recently Sladkevicius was named by the Pope (without the permission of the
communist government), as chairman of the Lithuanian Bishops Conference,
and in this capacity he came to Rome to discuss with Pope John Paul II
nominations of new bishops. Cardinal Sladkevicius, who finds the idyll that
seems to characterize today's relations between the Holy See and the Kremlin
to be alien, voiced very negative judgments on Gorbachev's "new course." He
said, "Behind the openings of perestroika, a sham can be hidden: I am truly
scandalized by the enormous and gratuitous credit which is given to the
Kremlin outside the U.S.S.R." On the thorny problem of a possible trip by the
Pope to Lithuania, the Cardinal said, "The real problem is in Moscow, where they
are still making a lot of difficulties against the Pope's visit. Even if we were to
invite him, the last word would always be up to the Kremlin. Moscow's Council
on Religious Affairs told me that now the Church is the one that has to take
steps toward the U.S.S.R., after the concessions made in recent years to the
Catholics."

Father Svarinskas Was Interviewed in Rome by Maria Cristina


Fiocchi
In the context of the Cardinal's statements, we interviewed Rev. Alfonsas
Svarinskas, a great pastor of the Lithuanian Catholic Church who has spent
more than 20 years in Communist concentration camps and was finally released
last year.
Q: How do you comment on the Cardinal's statements?
Svarinskas: All Lithuanians think the same as he does. There is a lot of talk,
but facts are what count. We should not listen to talk but to reality. The facts
say that unfortunately the laws and the nature of the system have not changed.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church with the Eastern rite is still outlawed.
The Belorussian Catholics have no rights, they have no bishops, no seminaries,
and no religious center. Only some old and sick priests are left. In the Baltic
countries there are many limitations on the activities of believers. Article 52 of
the Constitution, which discriminates against believing citizens, has not yet
changed.
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Q: The Lithuanian Catholics have denounced the Minister of Religion Konstantin


Kharchev, for canceling six aspiring youths from the list of candidates for the
seminary of Kaunas, without giving any explanation, while others were
terrorized by the KGB to push them into collaborating with the espionage
services.
Svarinskas: Fortunately, the Cardinal did not respect the prohibition and he
took those seminarians. He also assumed for Church offices some priests who
had been persecuted and hindered from their religious functions.

'Liberal' Words; Harsh Deeds


Q: How is the situation in the places of worship; are new churches being
opened?
Svarinskas: In the rural areas, the government has imposed very high taxes
on the churches, three times as high as those in the city. This was justified by
the danger of fires and lack of firemen. Now almost everywhere there are fire
stations, but the taxes have been kept high anyway.
Metropolitan Filaret (of the Russian Orthodox Church) of Minsk announced the
opening of hundreds of churches, but unfortunately these are not new
buildings: The old Byzantine Rite Catholic churches which had been closed for a
long time have been given to the Orthodox Church.
In short, for the believers, for the Catholics who suffer under the Soviet
dictatorship, the liberalizing programs of Gorbachev toward religion are just
words right now and there are no guarantees. They would have to recognize the
Catholic Church as having the rights of a juridical person throughout Soviet
territory and allow the Church to freely carry out its mission.

'Human Rights' Charade


Q: You denounced the Soviet proposal to hold an international conference in
Moscow in 1991 on human rights, which would be an important meeting which
would follow up the 1975 Helsinki conference. Western leaders, headed up by
the United States, have already accepted the prospect of an nth effort at
rapprochement between East and West.
Svarinskas: It would be a total capitulation to the Empire of Evil. The Soviet
leaders are deceiving public opinion in the Free World about presumed changes
in policies of the U.S.S.R. toward believers. Konstantin Kharchev stated that the
times of Stalinist repression are over ... but we must not forget that the culprit
in the case of so many millions of victims was not just Stalin, but the whole
system which is still in power since the death of Stalin. Nonetheless, the
question (of the conference on human rights) is not yet definitive, and I trust in
your help to stop the perpetration of such an infamous offense to all the victims
of the Communist regime.
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