Juozapas Skvireckas

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

His Excellency Juozapas Skvireckas
Archbishop of Kaunas
Church	Roman Catholic
Archdiocese	Kaunas
Appointed	5 April 1926
In office	1926–1959
Successor	Vincentas Sladkevičius
Orders
Ordination	24 June 1899
Consecration	13 July 1919 by Antanas Karosas
Personal details
Born	September 18, 1873 Pašilaičiai, Vilnius, Russian Empire
Died	December 3, 1959 (aged 86) Austria
Nationality	Lithuanian

In 1911–1937 he translated the Bible into the Lithuanian language; it was published in six volumes by the Society of Saint Casimir.[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 Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
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. (in 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. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
5. A. Strielkus Church Institution during the Period of Nazi Occupation in Lithuania
6. Piotrowski, p. 350

• Archbishop Juozapas Skvireckas
• THE ARCHDIOCESE OF KAUNAS

Further reading

• "Arkivyskupas Juozas Skvireckas" by Arūnas Streikus, "Kauno Arkivyskupijos Naujienos", No. 3, winter of 1999
• Church Institution during the Period of Nazi Occupation in Lithuania
• Archbishop Skvireckas's diary, 1941 m. Birželio sukilimas (collection documents), ed. V. Brandišauskas, Vilnius, 2000
• Vilma Narkutė, The Confrontation Between the Lithuanian Catholic Church and the Soviet Regime, New Blackfriars, Volume 87 Issue 1011, pages 456–475, 2006