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Lithuanian archbishop rues church decline since fall of communism

The Roman Catholic Church in Lithuania, a country that was once part of the Soviet Union but is now relatively prosperous and a member of the European Union, is facing such a severe shortage of clergy that it is difficult to carry out pastoral work, says the head of the church there, reports Ecumenical News International.

"In the first years of independence, an especially large number of men entered our seminaries but roughly half didn't last till the end; unfortunately, not all those who wanted to be priests had vocations," said Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius, president of Lithuania's Catholic Bishops' Conference.

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[08/30/2008]

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