No Turning Back

Vilnius—Anyone watching the steady stream of people of all ages entering the Vilnius Cathedral on the morning of November 25, 1989, could have assumed that this was an ordinary, everyday occurrence. Even the children scurrying through the door, genuflecting on both knees at the entrance before proceeding to their places, behaved as if this had been the usual practice throughout their lives. In fact, it was a new experience for any Lithuanian under the age of about sixty.

The occasion was the Mass which marked the opening of the congress to re-establish the Catholic Youth Association, Ateitis, in Lithuania, an organization which had been banned since the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Its objectives: to foster spiritual, intellectual, social, and familial consciousness in young people, based on traditional Christian values. The fact that this event could take place at all has lost much of its dramatic force against the backdrop of the revolutionary movements toward democracy sweeping through Eastern Europe, but opening the churches has accomplished much more than a return to the open practice of religion: it has opened the door to freedom of thought. Most of all, it has provided new hope for a better future.

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Peter G. Kaufmann

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Vilnius—Anyone watching the steady stream of people of all ages entering the Vilnius Cathedral on the morning of November 25, 1989, could have assumed that this was an ordinary, everyday occurrence. Even the children scurrying through the door, genuflecting on both knees at the entrance before proceeding to their places, behaved as if this had been the usual practice throughout their lives. In fact, it was a new experience for any Lithuanian under the age of about sixty.

The occasion was the Mass which marked the opening of the congress to re-establish the Catholic Youth Association, Ateitis, in Lithuania, an organization which had been banned since the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Its objectives: to foster spiritual, intellectual, social, and familial consciousness in young people, based on traditional Christian values. The fact that this event could take place at all has lost much of its dramatic force against the backdrop of the revolutionary movements toward democracy sweeping through Eastern Europe, but opening the churches has accomplished much more than a return to the open practice of religion: it has opened the door to freedom of thought. Most of all, it has provided new hope for a better future.