Restitution of Religious Education in Lithuania

ENThe Soviet government separated the Church from the process of education, closed religious schools, eliminated religious content from curriculum, and prohibited group catechesis. The Lithuanian Awakening at the end of 1980s and early 1990s restored religious education, important to a large segment of the Catholic population. However, implementation of religious education lacked both legislative and practical foundations. The research questions raised in this context are: Which essential prerequisites enabled restitution of religious education in the 1990s? and What main results in the sphere of restoration of religious education were achieved from the beginning of independence until 2004? This study analyses academic literature and uses documents as research sources. Sources reveal that at the beginning of the Awakening, the Lithuanian government, the Academy of Sciences, and Sąjūdis encouraged citizens, organisations, and social groups to offer suggestions for amendments to the Soviet Lithuanian Constitution. Both the Catholic clergy and congregations responded to the invitation. Their active participation in the legitimation of religious education nurtured preconditions for restitution, even on the eve of restoration of independence. From a legal perspective, the status of religious education and incorporation of the Catholic Church into the education process of the country was finally solidified in 2000 upon ratification of the international agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of Lithuania on cooperation in education and culture. At the beginning of the 21st century, religious education in Lithuania had a legal basis and a firm status in the system of education and a network of Catholic schools was created (partly re-created).