St. Alphonsus honors Baltimore’s spymaster priest

As the Cold War raged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1,000 nuns packed secret messages into tubes of toothpaste and bits of candy – smuggling the reports of human rights abuses and church persecution out of Communist-dominated Lithuania.

Posing as tourists, Lithuanian-Americans similarly risked imprisonment by sneaking religious books and articles into their homeland to feed a persecuted people starved for spiritual nourishment.

Father Casimir A. Pugevicius, a Baltimore priest and spymaster who coordinated those efforts and many like them, was honored for his heroism 10 years after his death during a Feb. 28 memorial service at his home parish of the Shrine of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore.

Audrius Bruzga, Lithuanian ambassador to the United States, helped hang a medal in Father Pugevicius’ honor at the conclusion of a nearly hour-long ceremony that attracted about 75 people. The honor, the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas, is one of the highest of the central European nation and had been given to Father Pugevicius shortly before his death.

Bruzga noted that “The Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania,” a bound copy of Father Pugevicius’s more than 70 volumes of human rights reports, is kept at the Lithuanian embassy in Washington. The priest’s efforts helped in the demise of the Soviet Union and its empire, Bruzga said.

“He worked relentlessly to restore dignity, liberty and justice,” Bruzga said. “His talents and energies were not bound by the walls of a particular parish or church.”

Calling Father Pugevicius a “towering figure,” the ambassador said Father Pugevicius was “blessed with a divine sense of purpose and vision.”

Father Pugevicius coordinated high-stakes cloak-and-dagger operations when he headed the New York-based Lithuanian Catholic Religious Aid for 17 years beginning in 1976. His “Chronicle” outlined how the Communists persecuted Lithuanians who attended Mass. The writings were often read over the radio airwaves on Voice of America.

When the KGB was quietly assassinating opponents, Father Pugevicius was among those in danger. In a 1999 interview with The Catholic Review, Father Pugevicius remembered that he decided not to visit the Holy Land out of fear he would be tracked down and “stuck with a poisoned needle on the end of an umbrella.”

“He witnessed to the truth of the faith,” said Father Richard Lawrence, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul and a close friend of Father Pugevicius. “He witnessed to what was possible.”

Marian Skabeikis, another of the priest’s many friends, remembered Father Pugevicius as a proud son of St. Alphonsus, a Lithuanian parish. Born to a Lithuanian family, the priest was baptized there, celebrated his first Mass as a priest there and was buried from there.

Skabeikis recalled that before he became active in fighting Communism, the priest was the director of radio and television communication for the Baltimore archdiocese. He had also been involved in the Young Christian Workers movement in Baltimore.

“He never failed to recognize in each of us the face of Jesus,” Skabeikis said.

In a service highlighted by Lithuanian hymns, organizers took one liturgical liberty. In honor of Father Pugevicius’ triumph over evil and his joy-filled life, they allowed a festive Easter hymn to be sung in Lithuanian at the end of the service – even though church is still in the Lenten season. “Alleluias” rang out in the old church as a fitting tribute to a man remembered as a hero to his people.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

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