IN BRIEF

IN ORDER TO MARK THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ERECTION of the ecclesiastical province of Lithuania and the creation of the archdiocese of Kaunas, the Pope has written a message to Metropolitan Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius S.J. The ecclesiastical province "suffered under the blows of harsh Soviet persecution," writes the Holy Father, but, "thanks to the never failing help of God, the years of trial saw the blossoming of a real garden of witnesses and martyrs of the faith. After the fall of the communist dictatorship, the Lithuanian people regained their liberty and entered more deeply into the family of nations, bringing with them their own heritage of values."

THE OFFICE OF LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF today announced that at 11 a.m. on Sunday, July 2, Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, metropolitan archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela will take possession of the tile of St. Mary ai Monti, Via della Madonna dei Monti 41, Rome.
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