KAPSUKAS RAYON
On June 19, 1972, several individuals from the Kapsukas Rayon office arrived at the church in Šunskai, where children had gathered for catechization, and listened to what the pastor was telling the parents and children.
On June 22, four officials from the rayon administration arrived: Markevičius, the vice-chairman of the rayon; Karkockas, the head of the financial department; the secretary of the Šunskai Young Communist League; and apparently, a KGB official. Father Petras Dumbliauskas, the pastor, met the officials at the door of the church, but their purpose was not to chat with the pastor, but to check on how the children were being catechized.
The officials counted fifty-eight children and eighteen parents in the church. They draw up a report on the spot, which the pastor signed.
On the following day, the pastor was summond by the Executive Committee and Vice-Chairman Markevičius ordered him to provide a written explanation. Father Dumbliauskas wrote that he had been performing his priestly duties by teaching the tenets of the faith to the fathers, mothers, and to the children which these parents had brought along. Now that he had been warned by representatives of the government, he would remind the parents to prepare their children for First Communion themselves.
"Will I be able to test them?" the pastor asked the vice-chairman of the rayon.
"You may not test them."
"But even Rugienis allows this."
"Neither Rugienis nor the bishop is the law," Markevičius retorted, categorically.
All week long the children of the parish in Šunskai went to the rectory to be tested on the tenets of their faith. Every day KGB officials stood guard at the church, watching what the pastor was doing. They photographed the people entering and leaving the church, and the arriving autos.
The Procurator of Kapsukas Rayon and the secretary of the I. Laukaitytė Collective Farm Party organization visited people questioning them as to how the children were being taught the truths of their religion. People reacted in various ways: some became frightened, but others said, "Don't meddle in other people's affairs. We are Catholics and want to raise our children as Catholics."
The people were also interrogated by KGB officials.
These events only served to show people the weakness of atheism, for it needs the support of rayon and state security officials.
"Now we'll attend church for sure, if this is what the government is doing," spoke those people of Šunskai who had never been known for their piety.
In July Father Dumbliauskas, the pastor of Šunskai, was transferred on orders from Rugienis to the parish in Liubavas, which is near the border.
When he had been working in the parish of Šunskai, Father Dumbliauskas had committed yet another "crime," which had upset the rayon officials. While cleaning up the area around the church, the pastor had noticed a sizeable rock by the churchyard gate, and, to keep it from getting in the people's way, he had buried it right there. It turned out that Kapsukas had once given a speech while standing on this rock. The rayon administration had promptly given the order to have the rock dug up and put back in its place.
The Rev. P. Dumbliauskas fell into disfavor with the Soviet authorities in 1969, when together with the Rev. J. Zdebskis, he had sent in January a declaration to Moscow in which he indicated that government officials had interrogated him and had threatened to put him on trial.
When he was pastor of the parish in Garliava, he had constantly been cautioned by government officials to observe the Soviet laws. In 1970 Bezdžinskas, the vice-chairman of Kaunas Rayon, warned the Rev. P. Dumbliauskas that he had grossly violated Soviet laws, because in the summertime he had taught the tenets of the faith to about 200 children.
In the summer of 1971, Rugienis had ordered Father Dumbliauskas to be transferred to the parish in Šunskai, but he was not permitted to work here either for very long.
