Juozapas Skvireckas

Juozapas Skvireckas (1873–1959) was a Lithuanian archbishop of Kaunas (1926–1959).[1]

In 1911–1937 he translated the Bible into the Lithuanian language.[2] During the occupation of the Baltic States by the Nazis, Skvireckas and his assistant, bishop Vincentas Brizgys, welcomed the Nazis.[3] Skvireckas would provide chaplains for Lithuanian-manned Nazi auxiliary units.[4] In later years however Skvireckas issued multiple protests to Nazi authorities regarding the conditions of the Catholic church in Lithuania.[5] He also sent reports to Vatican and since 1942 started receiving instructions from papal office.[5] In 1944, Skvireckas, Brizgys and over 200 other Lithuanian clergymen left Kaunas with retreating German forces, and went into exile.[4] He would settle in Austria, where he died in 1959.[6] After his death, the post of an (arch)bishop of Kaunas was vacant till 1989.

References

  1. ^ Catholic Hierarchy -Archbishop Juozapas Skvireckas
  2. ^ Lithuanian Bible
  3. ^ Yitzhak Arad, The Christian Churches and the Persecution of Jews in the Occupied Territories of the U.S.S.R, Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies
  4. ^ a b (English) Tadeusz Piotrowski (1997). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide.... McFarland & Company. pp. 165–166. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA165&vq=Skvireckas&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&source=gbs_search_s&sig=ACfU3U15J1alKqHHbL_53klmxh_8MYsAFw. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
  5. ^ a b A. Strielkus Church Institution during the Period of Nazi Occupation in Lithuania
  6. ^ Piotrowski, p. 350

Further reading

Preceded by
Pranciškus Karevičius, MIC (1914–1926)		 Archbishop of Kaunas
1926–1959		 Succeeded by
Vincentas Sladkevičius