Rytų apeigų vyskupo Petro Būčio misija Lietuvoje (1930–1940 m.)
Mission of the Eastern-Rite Bishop Petras Būčys in Lithuania (1930–1940)

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the attempts of the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Commission Pro Russia to organise the Catholic apostlehood among the Lithuanian Russian Orthodox and the Old Believers in the Eastern rites. It explores the initiatives of apostlehood practices in the Eastern rites in the interwar Lithuania and tries to unravel its motives, to show the scope and results of activities and the secret methods of apostlehood. In 1927–1929, the Vatican officials held unofficial negotiations with the Lithuanian leaders seeking to involve them in the preparations for the missions in Russia. Even though promises were made in the beginning, the government of the country tried to hold itself aloof from such a project once the Government changed and showed no reaction whatsoever to the Vatican pressure to impose restrictions on the Lithuanian communities of Orthodox and Old Believers (e.g. by preventing the training of the young clergy generation in spiritual courses). Thus, the mission of apostlehood among the Lithuanian Russians was purely church-based. It drew far less fellow supporters than it was expected. The priests returned from Russia did not contribute to the mission; it was not supported by the Congregation of Marian Fathers, the former general of which Petras Būčys was ordained a bishop of the Eastern rites in 1930 and from 1934 he promoted the Eastern-rite Catholicism among the Russians residing in the country: he celebrated the Holy Mass in the Eastern rites, wrote articles, delivered lectures, sought for missionaries among Catholic priests, Orthodox and Old Believers. In the beginning of 1937 the Congregation for the Oriental Churches founded the pontifical Mission of the Spiritual Help to the Lithuanian Russians. Its establishment was most probably promoted by the dissatisfaction of Petras Būčys with his situation – from 1934 he sought to liberate himself from the jurisdiction of the said congregation and to go to work to the American province of the Marian Fathers. As years passed by, he did not succeed in converting a single more influential Orthodox or Old Believer to Catholicism or establishing a single parish. His activities in Latvia did not give a single reason for optimism as well: in December 1937 Petras Būčys was authorised to be the leader of the spiritual education of the Eastern rites in Latvia but it took a year for a rather numerous and influential Russian national minority to block the invasion to their religious life: the Latvian government prevented Petras Būčys from entering the territory of the country. Secret methods of apostlehood initiated by Petras Būčys require a special mention...

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