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After Lithuania regained its independence, the priest A. Volskis, who had gone to the United States, returned home having acquired not only the western experience. He was also mentioned when talking about a sexually exploited minor and possible violence against a woman.
News of possible misdemeanors did not reach Lithuania until the end of last week, seven years after A. Volskis returned to Lithuania and more than ten years after what may have happened at the Detroit Catholic Gymnasium.
Ordered to take off the sutan
The story of the rape of an eight-year-old boy that has been described in detail in the American press and reached the Detroit court has yet to be proven, but the Archbishop of Vilnius, Gintaras Grušas, has already spoken publicly on Sunday: always painful and there are too many. “
The archbishop stated that he had met with A. Volski on the same day. He categorically denied the facts at issue in the United States case.
According to G.Grušas, the priest feels unjustly accused.
Although 64-year-old A. Volskis officially ended his Church service due to health problems two years ago, he was still working at the Vilnius Sanctuary of God’s Mercy: he celebrated masses, listened to confessions, and communicated with believers.
“He is currently retired from any priestly service,” Grush said.
Mass offered to the exiles
The archbishop assured that during the 7 years that A. Volskis spent in Lithuania, neither Vilnius nor Telšiai had received information about his mistreatment of minors.
In Vilnius, this priest served in two parishes, and in Telšiai he began his clerical path. There he was ordained a priest and worked for more than ten years.
In 1993, A. Volskis, 37, left for the United States.
Initially he served Lithuanian parishes in Los Angeles, Detroit, and Montreal. He then returned to Detroit, where he served in a non-Lithuanian parish.
The lesson ended scandalously
One of the priest’s duties was to teach at the Catholic Bishop’s Kelley School, where he was called Father Alu.
What ended a spiritual education lesson began in Detroit’s Eastern District Court last week.
A Michigan state teenager sued the Archdiocese of Detroit and a Catholic school alleging sexual exploitation.
Although the case concerns the actions of Father Alas, A. Volskis is not on the list of defendants.
Abused in the staff room?
The case alleges that in 2010, during lessons in a teachers’ lounge, a priest noticed that an eight-year-old sophomore appeared cold and offered him a medication: two blue tablets.
The boy is said to have felt extremely drowsy after drinking them. The victim indicated that she could not move but realized what was happening.
The lawsuit alleges that the priest raped and abused him.
It is said that she did so by “lamenting and praying in Latin, and leaving the child with one of her panties after finishing.”
He even hid from his parents
This story became clear only after eight years; Previously, the boy was afraid of complaining to his relatives, because A. Volskis allegedly threatened to harm his family if he told someone about the event.
The case alleges that the sophomore only told his mother that he no longer wanted to attend classes taught by the priest and sometimes avoided going to school altogether.
The mother noticed that the son was locked up and stopped preparing lessons.
The diocese, the Catholic school and the parish of the Immaculate Conception were notified of the possible exploitation of the child only by his parents in 2018, but at the same time they refused to continue cooperating and providing information.
He felt a martyr for the Church
The Archdiocese of Detroit itself approached the prosecutor’s office. The lawsuit filed with the court states that the potentially injured student suffered psychological trauma, felt constant anxiety and suffered from depression.
According to lawyers, priests and various religious objects associated it with sexual abuse, and the teenager did not leave the idea that he had become a martyr for the Church.
In the case, the Archdiocese of Detroit and representatives of the Church are charged with negligence, willful disregard for the priest’s conduct and other crimes.
Ned McGrat, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said he took the allegations very seriously and clarified all the circumstances as much as possible.
The woman also complained
Although the attorneys who filed the lawsuit complained that the allegedly infringing foreign priest had been placed in the rectory by the archdiocese and later helped escape the United States, McGrath denied this.
According to him, A. Volskis served in the Immaculate Conception parish until 2011, when a woman received a complaint that she had been sexually abused by a priest. After receiving such accusations, A. Volskis no longer lived in the rectory, he was not allowed to communicate with the children.
According to a representative of the archdiocese, due to the sexual exploitation of a woman, the prosecution terminated the investigation without gathering evidence, but the Church itself continued its investigation.
“Despite all his efforts, Volsky did not officially become a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit,” McGrat said.
No Lithuanian surname
2013 A. Volskis returned to Lithuania and has not received any complaints from US law enforcement since then.
In 2018, the Michigan State Attorney General launched a massive investigation into the possible exploitation of minors in churches. Decades of crimes have even been investigated.
The Church submitted 220 boxes of paper documents and 3.5 million electronic documents to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, but A. Volski’s name was not on the suspect lists.
“We have completed an investigation into this priest because there was insufficient evidence to charge him with a crime,” Michigan State Attorney General Ryan Jarvi told The Detroit News.
Court News After arriving in the United States in Lithuania, G. Grush urged everyone with information about the possible exploitation of minors to apply to the dioceses.
They all contain the person responsible for that information.
Neither the cleric nor the investigators were sanctioned
Lithuanian courts have long cleared up the confusing history of possible violence by priests.
In 2014, 42-year-old Mr. Černas filed an application with the Vilnius City District Court. He demanded money not from a cleric accused of violence but from the state. He tried to collect more than 620 thousand euros for the undue work of the prosecutors.
D. Černas, who lives in Denmark, had publicly stated that in 1992 Monsignor J. Antanavičius, from the Diocese of Panevėžys, used sexual violence against him. The young man was 17 at the time.
He said he had been raped and came of age, and said the monsignor had previously stunned him with a liquid that he had added to tea. The clergyman was then 62 years old.
J. Antanavičius categorically denied his guilt.
D. Černas stated that he did not submit a request to the Diocese of Panevėžys for the first time, in 2002, regarding this event. After receiving no reply a couple of years later, D. Černas himself wrote a letter to then-Bishop J. Kauneckas.
Representatives of the Diocese of Panevėžys stated that although this letter had not been officially registered in the diocesan curia, the priests tried to consult with the possibly affected young man, but he sent emails with threats and various demands over several years.
J. Antanavičius approached law enforcement regarding the threats, which led to the initiation of a pre-trial investigation. D.Chern had to suspend his studies in Denmark: he was banned from leaving the country. Therefore, he filed an action against the State.
D. Černas, who lost the case, not only did not receive money, but also had to pay 1.4 thousand. by the services of J. Antanavičius’s lawyer.
