Alfonsas Svarinskas

Alfonsas Svarinskas (2007)

Alfonsas Svarinskas (born January 21, 1925 in Kadrėnai near Deltuva , Ukmergė district ; † July 17, 2014 ) was a Lithuanian Catholic priest, a dissident during the communist dictatorship and a politician .

Life

From 1932 to 1936 Svarinskas studied in Vidiškiai and from 1936 to 1942 at the Ukmergė grammar school . From 1942 to 1946 he studied at the Kaunas seminary . From 1946 Svarinskas was persecuted for anti-Soviet activity in Soviet Lithuania . He left the seminary and supported the Lithuanian partisans. He provided them with medicines, press and documents. In December 1946, Svarinskas was arrested, tortured and sentenced. From 1947 to 1956 he was in the Abese camp ( Komi , Russia). In 1954, he was secretly the Bishop Pranciškus Ramanauskas for priests ordained. From 1956 to 1957 he worked in Kulautuva ( district Kaunas ) and in 1958 as vicar in Betygala near Raseiniai .

In 1958 he was arrested again. He spent the years 1958 to 1964 in camps in Mordovia . In 1961 he was sentenced by default by the Supreme Court of the Lithuanian SSR as a particularly dangerous repeat offender (рецидивист, recidivist ). From April 1964 he lived in Lithuania again. From 1965 to 1971 he worked as a vicar in Miroslavas ( district of Alytus ) and in Kudirkos Naumiestis near Šakiai , from 1971 to 1976 as pastor of Igliauka and Patilčiai near Marijampolė . From 1976 to 1983 he was the pastor of Viduklė in the Raseiniai district .

From 1972 he worked for the illegal Lithuanian Roman Catholic magazine Lietuvos katalikų bažnyčios kronika . In 1978 he founded the human rights organization Tikinčiųjų teisėms ginti katalikų komitetas with other dissident priests . In 1983 he was arrested and sentenced again. From 1983 to 1988 he sat in camps in Rajon chusovoy in the Oblast Perm one. In 1988, on a visit to Moscow , Ronald Reagan asked Mikhail Gorbachev for the release of Svarinskas. In 1988 Svarinskas came to Viduklė and was deported to Germany without a right of return. Until 1990 he visited the Lithuanian communities around the world. He met with Pope John Paul II twelve times .

From 1990 to 1991 he was Chancellor of Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius (1920–2000), from 1991 to 1992 Deputat in the Seimas . From 1991 to 1995 he was senior chaplain of the Lithuanian Army . He was promoted to colonel . From 1997 to 1998 he worked in Kaunas , from 1998 to 2000 as pastor of Kavarskas near Anykščiai , from 2000 resident of Ukmergė .

Honors

• 1989: Honorary Citizen of Lecco , Italy
• 1998: Order of the Vytis Cross , 3rd level
• 2009: Honorary Citizen of Raseiniai

Web links

• Keli štrichai monsinjoro Alfonso Svarinsko portretui (2005)
• Erškėčiais grįstas kunigystės kelias (2009)
• Documentary "Who are you, Father Svarinskas? .." (1987)