| Fellow Missionaries,
The Church in Lithuania survives in spite of 50 years of Communist rule. Fr. David O'Rourke writes this month of the heroic efforts to keep alive the Catholic faith and now to rebuild a Church that once flourished. Fr. David works in the Family Center of the Archdiocese. He is not doing missionary work in the traditional sense of the term but offers a new understanding. Your generosity enables the Catholic Church to once again minister to a people hungry for God's word, eager for the Sacraments. Fr. David recruits and trains laity for service and leadership in the Church. He works with priests in assisting them in being prepared to fully serve the needs of this Church reborn. Blessings, Fr. Martin
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REBUILDING THE CHURCH IN LITHUANIA By Fr. David O’Rourke, O.P. When I hear the word “mission” I usually think of Third World countries with steamy climates and poor people in desperate need of life’s essentials. So it is hard for me to think of myself as a missionary. I work in a city with trolley busses and supermarkets where the milk comes in plastic containers marked 1 percent and 2 percent. But let me assure you, it really is a mission; we are working to rebuild Catholic life after 50 years of horrendous Soviet per-sec. I work now part of each Spring and Fall in Eastern Europe, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. For 50 years this country was, very unwillingly, a part of the Soviet Union. Life at all levels was controlled directly from Moscow by the KGB, the Soviet secret police. |
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