Priest Richard Doveika: We are eliminated, we are unnecessary. We are falling behind.

He recalled the observation of his well-known writer that in the face of the migratory crisis, neither the Church nor the State had managed to awaken humanity.

“He noted very well, he noted very precisely, he noted very cruelly. If humanity wakes up, then everything is resolved, all difficulties are resolved. In the post-war years, however, it was more terrible: somehow it was resolved, despite all the fighting, stirrups, blood, hardships, scattered families, the refugees themselves. But there was some humanity and he left, ”said the clergyman.

He welcomed the fact that after the events on the border with Belarus, Archbishop Gintaras Grušas said that illegal immigrants were our brothers and sisters, but regretted that the Church did not go further and that the issue had not developed. .

“I also said during the sermon: I will tell you how to win the hybrid war with Belarus, so that you will consider them (the migrants – Delphi) as brothers and sisters. I was waiting for a single official word from the Church, from politicians, for someone to say that they are people, they are not an army on the march. Even if there were an army, the prisoners would be treated humanely. There are children, ”said J. Sasnauskas.

Collaboration: believers are seen as a kind of burden

At the time, the priest Ričardas Doveika stated that he noticed a disrespectful attitude towards the cornerstones of the state in the wider society.

“I was in several schools. On the day of science and knowledge, no one sings a hymn. We press the button, we play the recording and when the recording plays, nobody calms down, nobody stands up, nobody takes their hands out of their pockets, nobody puts their hands on their hearts. What is our approach to the national anthem? Do you take selfies because a child is holding a gladiolus? Let it ring and I’m chewing [gumą] or I play with a mobile phone ”, said the priest.

“We gave up our hearts because we were too caught up in the things we had and a lot of things became orderly things. When a politician says that if he doesn’t like the government, he chooses another after four years, then I wonder if this is another four-year project. I mean, don’t those people want to be in government after four years? If today I take the position of the Minister to say this, then I do not know how to build bridges of dialogue, trust, how to discover the heart ”, said R. Doveika.

According to the priest, there is no better time to discover Christianity and bear witness to your faith than at this time of crisis, but R. Doveika regrets that many believers are viewed with contempt.

“We are eliminated, we are unnecessary. We are falling behind. We say prayers, we pray for Lithuania. Many people see believers as just old believers, uneducated believers, a kind of burden on the clothes of the state. That is the approach. And it’s hard to admit that the churches are full of young people, full of children.

Now that we have started the year of catechesis again, hundreds of thousands of children will learn to pray again, they will learn to love the land, they will learn to pray for their land, they will learn to respect grandparents, they will have social programs, they will go, they will visit people, means the Church. breathes that humanity and is removed from the public space.

In spring, when priorities were set [skiepijimo] groups, we tried to ask if it would be possible to enroll the clergy with doctors and social workers: we visit people in combat, we visit grandparents at home, we bring the support of the parish. And the people who served on the commissions that approved the priority lists said: We will never miss this group. And it was accompanied by such epithets… ”- remembered R. Doveika.

Sasnauskas: I have to admit that today the farthest side of the Church sometimes has more respect for man

Speaking about the migration crisis, the priest J. Sasnauskas recalled that Pope Francis also said that the division into “us” and “them”, “me” and “others” should be completed.

“It is very difficult to do, but we have to do it. I do not know what happened, and it is strange when I show them to those old men in Medininkai or some other place, in Kybartai, in the border area. They themselves have come from many other places. “In Medininkai there are people who came from the same Belarus in Soviet times. How do they not feel as if they were here too. The Bible is full of reminders that they were aliens in Egypt and are sensitive,” said the priest.

According to R. Doveika, every society can find solutions to problems when it stops humiliating each other, sticking labels, fighting against those who have critical thinking and want to dialogue and starts talking.

“Fear is overcome by freedom. And what freedom requires is faith and love. Optimism disappoints us, as Pope Francis says, optimism can often disappoint. We also had optimism: one dose will be enough, now we need one. second, a support, maybe a fourth and a fifth, but hope never leaves a person and does not give up. To overcome this fear you only need to decide that I am what I am, what I have, what I live in everyday life today it can become a gift for you.

You just have to decide that that person is like me, that you are worthy of respect and love, that that person is also a hostage to certain world affairs, and that that person needs to be loved as much as I want to be. loved. When we get these things back, we will discover, they will revive, when civil society is built, not through the Bill of Rights, but through trust in practice, Istanbul, associations, everything else, the vaccines that will naturally solve.

Respect in society is spoken, it is not shouted, it is not named. If today a person who uses all vaccines but has questions about a vaccine is publicly inferred antivakseriu, this is the largest incision on the face. I am not antivaxeris“If I have any questions about this vaccine,” explained the priest.

According to him, the first thing to look back on is respect. “During the first quarantine, those who kept the letters and were loyal citizens of the state and I did not go to Christmas Eve, although I live a few hundred meters from my brother’s family, I stood in front of the altar as a priest and I begged the people that it did not move through the municipalities. Religious life. What is the state’s gratitude for that? Opportunity passport valid for 48 hours? Thank you, “said R. Doveika.

At that time, Priest J. Sasnauskas noted that the younger generation offered hope, even though it was often distant from the Church.

“It just came to our knowledge then. I have to admit that today even sometimes the side that is quite liberal, so to speak, liberal, because far from the Church, sometimes it has more respect for man and love for neighbor than we do with our rules and everything else. Here’s the fact. It gives me both joy and hope that everything will change, “said J. Sasnauskas in the Delfi TV conversation with Daiva Žeimyte-Biliene.