Thanks to Lithuanian Catholics, the campaign for the restoration of the “Hill of the Crosses” has begun. Symbolic place of the resistance of the Baltic country to Russian occupation and of the faith of the Lithuanian people, the “Hill of the Crosses” was damaged by fire on 28 December. It contains at least 200,000 crosses installed on its slopes over the years. News of the restoration is carried by the American Catholic press agency, CNS, which reports the statements of a local administrator, Meilute Pozemeckaite: “people are praying and planting new crosses in the area destroyed by the fire, which will therefore not remain empty for long”. For his part, Bishop Eugenijus Bartulis of Siauliai, in whose diocese the Hill is situated, has said that “the main damage was suffered by the small crosses, even though some of the larger crosses will be difficult to replace. Fortunately – he added – most of the more valuable crosses were spared from the flames. They include also the one donated by Benedict XVI in September 2006”. The Hill of the Crosses, situated 10 km to the north of Siauliai, is one of the most important goals of pilgrimage of the Lithuanian people. The custom of planting crosses here can be traced back to 1831, during the revolt against Russia, and was revived by the Catholics returning from exile in Siberia in the 1950s. The Soviet government tried to destroy the site with bulldozers in the past, but without success. John Paul II came as a pilgrim to the Hill in 1993 and celebrated a Mass there. He also donated a large cross to the Hill in 1994. Meanwhile widespread protests are being registered in Lithuania by the transmission on TV, at the beginning of this month, of the animated cartoon Popetown, a series that makes fun of the Pope and the cardinals. The Lithuanian episcopate, as reported by the APIC agency, had asked that the transmission be suspended, but the request was turned down by the court with the motivation that there was no proof of any prejudice against the Church. Some 80% of the 3.4 million inhabitants of Lithuania profess themselves Catholics.
