On the Government’s Religious Advisor
Oct 18, 2004
More than six months after the resignation of Petras Plumpa as the government's religious affairs adviser, the long-delayed competition for the position has produced three candidates, the personnel office of the government told Keston News Service from Vilnius. One of them is the choice of the Catholic Church, the major faith in Lithuania.
(Keston News Service, 1 October 2001) The successful candidate is likely to be chosen on 11 October. However, controversy continues about what role the adviser should play - and whether the government should have such an adviser at all.
The post - for which there is a monthly wage of 3080 litas (521 GBP/ 770 USD) - was advertised in early September in the official gazette and by the closing date of 21 September the three candidates who had put themselves forward were Julieta Zirgzdiene, Julius Ratkus and Valdas Zubinas, reported Renata Sadzeviciute of the personnel office.
“I was not aware that these three were the people in the competition,” Archbishop Audrys Backis of the Catholic Archdiocese of Vilnius told Keston on 1 October. Although Catholic leaders had earlier refused to identify their candidate for the post, he admitted to Keston that Ratkus is the candidate the Catholic Church proposed to the government. Asked why he believed Ratkus would be the best candidate, Archbishop Backis responded: “Because he is of good Catholic background. He is studying law and is already making his mark. We do hope the results of the competition will be positive. We hope it will be someone who is a Catholic.”
Asked whether he believed a non-Catholic could fulfil the job's functions, Archbishop Backis declared: “We hope this will not happen. The individual chosen has to be competent about what is a church or a congregation. In Lithuania it is quite difficult if you are not a Catholic. Anyway, practically all the other denominations - except for the Russian Orthodox Church - are very small. The Lutherans for example have just 15,000 adherents.”
Controversy surrounds the work of the previous incumbent. Plumpa, who is now 62, is a Catholic who served long labour camp terms in the Soviet Union for anti-Soviet activity and production of an underground Catholic journal. “The Catholic Church proposed him for the job as adviser some years ago,” Archbishop Backis told Keston. “He did good work.” Asked whether he believed Plumpa had served all religious communities, Archbishop Backis responded: “I think so.”
Archbishop Backis said Plumpa had resigned because “no-one listened to him”. “He was pushed to one side. He said he couldn't achieve anything and so preferred to leave.”
On the Government’s Religious Advisor