Sigitas TamkeviÄius
Sigitas Tamkevičius, SJ ( born November 7, 1938 in Gudonys, rayon Lazdijai ) is Lithuanian Roman Catholic Archbishop, Archbishop Metropolitan of Kaunas and chairman of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference. He was also co-founder of the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the faithful.
Life
1955 ended Sigitas Tamkevičius the middle school in Seirijai and entered the seminary Kaunas. He was ordained a priest on 18 April 1962.
Since March 19, 1972, he gave up the Lithuanian Roman Catholic Chronicle ( " Lietuvos Katalikų Bažnyčios Kronika " ) and worked as an editor for 11 years. Because of its religious and anti-Soviet views and activities, he was persecuted for many years by Soviet secret services and authorities.
In the Gulag
On May 6, 1983, the priest Sigitas Tamkevičius was sentenced to 6 years in a labor camp and four years of exile. From 5 years were divided into four Soviet gulags ( including the bearing Permian 37, 36 and 35) and a half years banishment. He was under section 70 of the Criminal Code USSR ( Article 68 of the Criminal Code LSSR " for anti-Soviet agitation and deeds" ) condemned. The priest had dared to report in the underground samizdat newspaper ( Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania) on the persecution of Christians.
Sigitas Tamkevičius made forced labor in the gulags in the infirmary and also in the kitchen, but was also used in the swamps of the construction of canals. However, his legs have taken heavy damage in the harsh climate of Siberia. His faith was strengthened by his prayer and work in the prison camp. The New Testament was given him, and the canon of the Mass, he knew by heart. To be able to celebrate Holy Mass, he lacked only wine.
It had to be allowed a 5 - kg monthly package. Tamkevičius always asked for raisins, because he had learned in the seminar how to make it in extreme distress wine (with water ferment the raisins within three days ). So you could celebrate the Holy Mass in captivity ( with his back to the door). If at all possible, inmates could participate. Small vessels had hidden in the glasses case Sigitas Tamkevičius.
KGB persecution
The KGB did not allow him to keep his rosary. But a cellmate ( a sailor ) made from bread to a rosary for Sigitas Tamkevičius. The KGB was aware of it and mocked in a Soviet newspaper: the prisoner hold in one hand and a rosary in the other the hammer.
After the forced labor of the day there was free time - and so Sigitas Tamkevičius could pray three hours a day - even the rosary.
When the authorities were considering to fire him, but were also extremely interested in receiving information, they brought Sigitas Tamkevičius in February 1987 to Vilnius back. A young KGB colonel invited the priest to tea - which was very unusual - and after tea he could remember 14 to 22 clock anything. There were drugs in tea; and in the interrogation they tried - unsuccessfully - to get information about the publications of the underground church.
Bishop
After the collapse of the Soviet Union Sigitas Tamkevičius was appointed by Pope John Paul II appointed auxiliary bishop in Kaunas and titular bishop of Turuda on May 8, 1991. He received his episcopal consecration on May 19, 1991 Vincentas Cardinal Sladkevicius.
On May 4, 1996, he entered, after the resignation of Vincentas Sladkevicius, to its successor as Archbishop of Kaunas.
On November 3, 1996 in Regensburg Tamkevecius received the Georg von Hertling Medal of CT.
Honors
- Honorary citizen of Kaunas, in September 1997
- Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, 1998
- Commander of the Order of Vytis - Cross, 2002
Quotes
- " Prison is better for a bishop as spiritual exercises ."
- " Never have I had time to pray so fervently as in the prison camp. After the forced labor of the day there was free time - so I could pray three hours a day -. Well as the Rosary "
- " The humility and humiliation - that was the biggest - and the feeling that I could not do anything on my own.
- " The cell window with four rods and the grid in the door made me realize that I was totally dependent on external power. And the cellmates were very often ' informants ' who should pump me. "
- "I clean my toilet every day, to help me, my experience in jail a lot. Without this experience I would keep cleaning up the toilet for a bishop to be inappropriate. "
- "Under today's conditions - in the post-communist society - it is not easy to reach the different levels of people. "
- " His line you have to follow consistently, like a tank, and you may be not be unsettled by everything always tell the people as well. "
Links, sources
- For his faith went Sigitas Tamkevičius to the labor camp and exile to Siberia interview with the Archbishop of Kaunas
- As a martyr in the Gulag in Siberia: Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevičius
- Information of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference on Sigitas Tamkevičius
- Entry on catholic - hierarchy.org