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VILNIUS, Lithuania (CNS) – In Lithuania, a nation that
experienced invasions, atrocities and persecutions, Pope Francis began his visit
with a plea to break the walls of suspicion and fear.
"If we look at the world stage in our time, more and more
more voices sow division and confrontation – often exploiting insecurity
or situations of conflict – and proclaim that the only possible way to
guarantee the safety and the continued existence of a culture is to try to
eliminate, cancel or expel others, "said the pope on 22 September.
Go directly from the airport to Lithuania
presidential palace, the first meeting of Pope Francis was with the president,
government authorities and municipal leaders.
He recognized the country's painful past, which included
"numerous trials and suffering: detentions, deportations and even
the martyr. "But he also praised the country's culture and the people for
tenaciously resist attacks on his freedom.
The Pope's visit from 22 to 25 September in Lithuania, Latvia and
Estonia arrives the year when the three Baltic countries celebrate the hundredth
anniversary of their declarations of independence after the first world war
declared Soviet republics in 1940, the countries were occupied by the Nazis during
World War II and then lived under the Soviet regime from 1944 to 1990.
Pope Francis, addressing the national leaders, said that until the
the Nazis and Soviets arrived, people from various national backgrounds and
religions lived peacefully in Lithuania.
"Totalitarian ideologies", although "by
sowing violence and lack of trust, undermined this ability to accept and
harmonize differences, "he said, as Lithuanians are consolidating their
independence and democracy they have to go back to those earlier cultural values of
"tolerance, hospitality, respect and solidarity".
The Lithuanians, says the Pope, know first-hand what is happening
when a political ideology tries to "impose a single model that would cancel
differences under the pretense of believing that the privileges of a few are
more important than the dignity of others or the common good. "
