A “memorable human chain” that testified to the presence of a “living community, united by the hope of obtaining freedom of conscience, human dignity and the spiritual and economic well-being of society”: that’s how the Lithuanian bishops recalled in recent days the peaceful anti-Soviet demonstration for freedom that mobilised some two million Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians on 23 August 1989. Taking each other by the hand, they formed “a human chain” that stretched all the way from Tallin to Vilnius passing through Riga, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the partition of Eastern Europe enacted by the pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany of 23 August 1939. “Common ideals may help to re-unite a community, but it is far more difficult to nourish it, amplify it and reinforce it point out the bishops in their letter marking the 15th anniversary of the demonstration -. Human efforts alone without God’s help are not sufficient to combat the adverse forces that tend to disintegrate the unity of society”. Hence the exhortation of the archbishop of Vilnius, Cardinal Audrys Backis, of the archbishop of Kaunas, Msgr. Sigitas Tamkevicius, and the general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, Msgr. Gintaras Gruas, “to implore the Lord to revive charity, reciprocal trust and civil dignity for the genuine well-being of each member of society” in which “no one must feel himself disadvantaged by the wave of changes taking place”. At the end of their letter, the Lithuanian bishops appeal to neighbouring Churches to “join in the common prayer for unity”.
