Religious education at schools in Lithuania

ENDuring the twentieth century, Lithuania experienced three profound transformations. The first involved the creation of an independent Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940). At the time, the democratic state institutions established close links and collaboration with the Catholic Church as well as with those churches of other denominations. According to the constitution (1922) the Lithuanian State introduced compulsory religious instruction in public primary and secondary schools. Several Catholic religious orders i.e. (The Marists, Jesuits, and Franciscans) opened private gymnasiums and primary schools. At the time, the Vilnius Academy, Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University theology and philosophy departments, various informal Catholic movements as well as the Catholic periodical press became a strong influence and cornerstone of Catholic education and culture. There were also Orthodox, Evangelical and Jewish communities which influenced the political, economic, cultural, social and religious life of the country. Today Lithuanian law recognizes nine existing traditional religious communities.Another poignant part of twentieth-century Lithuania was the 50-year Soviet occupation by the communist regime. During the first year of the Soviet occupation, Lithuania lost one-quarter of the current population, significantly those people who were the most innovative and active in the public life of their country (Anusauskas 2004). The Lithuanian population endured economic, cultural, ethnic and spiritual violence. Religious education was abolished in all the educational institutions of the country, b ecause education was then influenced by an atheistic ideology which was hostile to any faith. During the Soviet regime, some representatives of the Catholic Church - the so-called underground church - guarded not only faith, morality and truth, but also the nation’s culture, language and history, this became a significant political and spiritual resistance to the occupying authorities.