The Soviet Union’s absorption of Lithuania in 1944 was followed by the usual Soviet program of repressing a subjugated people’s national identity. In Lithuania, this included severe strictures against the Catholic Church. Parishes and monasteries were closed. Bishops, priests and religious sisters were shipped to the gulag or executed. A brief but short-lived “thaw” after Stalin’s death in 1953 was followed in the early 1960s by draconian anti-Catholic measures. Priests could not catechize children, bring the sacraments to the sick, or do pastoral work outside the local churchyard. Pilgrimage sites were destroyed, and atheistic propaganda was a staple of the state school curriculum.
On the latest episode, EPPC’s Faith Angle podcast (Listen on: Apple | Spotify | Stitcher) hosted Dr. Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, and Dr. Chris Seiple, Founder of the The Sagestone Group as well as principal advisor to the Templeton Religion Trust. How much of a role does religion play in the war Vladimir Putin launched in Ukraine? It’s a complicated question, but the answer may very well be: more than most Western experts think. These guests bring decades of military, foreign policy, and peacemaking expertise to help us make sense of the horrible war now unfolding in Ukraine.
