Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993 TAG: 9309050109
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VILNIUS, LITHUANIA LENGTH: Medium
"With great emotion I have just kissed the soil of Lithuania, grateful to God for the gift of being able to come among you," the pope said after arriving for a seven-day tour of the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
His visit to Lithuania held special meaning for the Polish-born pontiff, whose drive for human rights in his homeland contributed to the fall of Communism across Europe.
In 1984 and 1987, the pope sought to visit Lithuania, the Roman Catholic stronghold in the Soviet Union. But the Moscow leadership blocked the trips.
"How deeply I have longed to visit your land, which is particularly dear to me," he said. He praised the "silent witness of a passionate love for religious freedom."
Tens of thousands lined the motorcade route under gray skies that turned to rain shortly after the 73-year-old pope drove by. Catholics make up about three-quarters of Lithuania's 3.7 million people.
"I just caught a brief look at him. But what a personality! He's something special," said Zitas Stankevichas, a policeman standing along the pope's route."It was like it was in the Soviet army when some special general came to see your troops. You had to be very prepared."
The pope was greeted at the airport by President Algirdas Brazauskas, a 60-year-old former Communist who crossed himself and kissed the pontiff's ring.
Just five days ago, Moscow withdrew the last of its troops from Lithuania, removing a possible source of friction during the papal visit. "After 54 years our country has become absolutely free," Brazauskas told the pope. "This is a very significant and symbolic coincidence."
But about 15,000 Russian troops remain in Latvia and 4,000 in Estonia, the next stops on the papal trip. The U.S. Congress has threatened to cut off aid to Russia unless they go home.
The three Baltic republics were annexed by Moscow in 1940 in a secret agreement with Nazi Germany. The Vatican and many Western countries refused to recognize the annexation. The republics regained independence in 1992 after the Soviet collapse.
Persecution of Catholics was particularly severe in the Stalinist years, when clergy who opposed the Soviet takeover were arrested, deported or shot.
But while paying tribute to Lithuania's past trials under five decades of Soviet rule, the pontiff looked to the future and appealed for reconciliation.
"In your eyes, there must be neither winners nor losers, but rather men and women who need to be helped to leave error behind," he told priests and nuns at the Vilnius Cathedral, which had been used as an art gallery under the Communists.
During his four-day stay in Lithuania, the pope will stop at two sites that are symbols of the country's struggle against the Soviet occupiers.
Today in Vilnius, the capital, he will visit the tombs of victims of Lithuania's 1991 revolt against Soviet power. On Tuesday, outside the city of Siauliai, he will celebrate Mass near the Hill of Crosses, where Lithuanians planted thousands of crosses in defiance of the occupiers.
by CNB