NEWS for Tuesday, May 30, 2000
LITHUANIAN CARDINAL SLADKEVICIUS DIES
VATICAN (CWNews.com)
Cardinal Vicentas Sladkevicius, the retired
archbishop of Kaunas, Lithuania, died on May 28 at the age of 79.
Born into a farming family of modest means, and ordained to the priesthood
in 1944, Vicentas Sladkevicius was consecrated a bishop on Christmas Day in
1957-- although the Communist government refused to recognize his status.
He became apostolic administrator of the Kaisiadorys diocese in 1982, and in
1988 Pope John Paul II raised him to the College of Cardinals. In 1989 he
became the Archbishop of Kaunas, retiring from that post in May 1996.
In a message of condolence to Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius, the new head
of the Kaunas archdiocese, Pope John Paul spoke of Cardinal Sladkevicius as
"a heroic priest," and a "very dear brother." The Pope said: "Although he was
impeded for years from exercising his episcopal mission, and forced to live
under surveillance, he never was intimidated; he offered a shining example
of unshakable confidence in divine providence and loyalty to the See of
Peter."
With the death of the Lithuanian prelate, the College of Cardinals now has
just 100 members who are under the age of 80 and thus eligible to vote in a
papal election.
LITHUANIAN CARDINAL SLADKEVICIUS DIES
20th Century Witness of Faith
VATICAN CITY, MAY 29 (ZENIT.org).
Lithuanian Cardinal Vincentas
Saldkevicius, Archbishop Emeritus of Kaunas, died in that city last
night, as the result of long term illness. He was shortly to have
celebrated his 80th birthday.
John Paul II sent a telegram to Lithuania, calling the Cardinal a
"priest of integral faith and fervid piety, despite the fact that for
long years he was confined and denied the practice of his episcopal
mission. But he never allowed himself to be intimidated, and always gave
a luminous example of indomitable confidence in Divine Providence and
loyal fidelity to the See of Peter."
On November 14, 1957, Pius XII named Vincentas Saldkevicius Auxiliary
Bishop of Kaisiadorys without the approval of the Soviet authorities who
annexed the country in 1940. Thus he was impeded from assuming his
episcopal ministry and deported from his diocese. He remained in a rural
parish until 1982, when John Paul II appointed him Apostolic
Administrator of the diocese of Kaisiadorys; in 1988 he was created
Cardinal. A year later, he was made Archbishop of Kaunas, a post he held
until 1996.
"I thank God for this heroic presbyter and bishop that he gave the
Church," the papal telegram states.
The Lithuanian Cardinal's funeral will be held on June 1 in the Kaunas
Cathedral. His mortals remains will lie in the Cathedral's crypt, next
to those of other Archbishops of that city.
Sources of the Church in Lithuania stated that everything possible will
be done to begin his process of beatification.
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Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevicius, a priest of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate is the Archbishop emeritus of Kaunas in Lithuania. He was born in Zaslai, Lithuania in the township of Guroniai on August 20, 1920. He attended a Jesuit high school in the Diocese of Kaunas which prompted him to follow his heart in studying for the priesthood with the M.I.C.'s He was ordained a priest on March 25, 1944 and assigned various pastoral duties for his Order while attaining his Doctorate. Eight years after ordination, his studies complete, he was assigned as professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Major Seminary in Kaunas.