Features of the activities of the Lithuanian American Roman Catholic Priest Union in 1909-1951

ENWith the start of the rapid process of industrialization in the nineteenth century, immigrants began to flood major Western countries in search of both material welfare and a space that did not limit the freedom of speech. Many migrants were lured by the possibility of easy money though having little idea of the challenges that awaited them in new, unfamiliar countries. The most popular destination was the United States of America. Most of the Lithuanian arrivals were Catholics; therefore, they first tried to gather on a religious basis, coming together with Poles into parishes and associations. Gradually, the relations between these two culturally close, but linguistically different diasporas became tense. The Polish diaspora had already taken deeper roots in North America than the Lithuanians who arrived in the late nineteenth century. This was also evident in the church hierarchy. The Poles had bishops of Polish origin among them, who defended the interests of their compatriots. Whereas the Lithuanians did not have a Lithuanian pastor who would be responsible for the pastoral care of Lithuanians all over the world up until the second half of the twentieth century. The threat of losing national identity encouraged Lithuanian clergy without a pastoral mission to engage in the work of social consolidation and education. [From the publication]