Press release, 9 May 2016
Photos of the Office of the Seimas (author Olga Posaškova)
Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of His Holiness Pope Francis, and expressed her hopes for His Holiness Pope Francis’ visit to Lithuania in the near future. The honourable guest responded to this by saying, “Just as John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus, so will I pave the way for the Pope to Lithuania.”
The visit by the Vatican Secretary of State symbolically coincided with the anniversary of our bilateral relations, as this year marks the 25th anniversary of the full resumption of diplomatic relations between Lithuania and the Holy See. At the meeting, the Speaker of the Seimas underlined that both countries enjoy close and warm bilateral relations. “Lithuania and the Holy See share the same values,” the Speaker of the Seimas said.
The Vatican Secretary of State welcomed the particularly good bilateral relations and expressed his hopes that this trend would continue into the future. The guest noted that the visit was important with a view to strengthening cooperation and ensuring world peace. Cardinal Parolin took the view that this was extremely relevant in the current context when there were so many military conflicts in the world.
The Speaker of the Seimas and the Vatican Secretary of State discussed the importance of family and moral ethics in today’s society. The representative of the Holy See invited to take note of the family welfare issue. He was convinced that family was the basis of every society that required comprehensive social and economic support and security.
Having agreed with the ideas expressed by Cardinal Parolin, Mrs Graužinienė also recalled her visit to the Vatican where she had met His Holiness Pope Francis. “On the day of my visit, His Holiness focussed, in his address to the general audience, on women’s role in life and in family and on the God’s gift of maternity,” the Speaker of the Seimas said.
At the end of the visit, the Speaker of the Seimas and the Vatican Secretary of State went to see the January 13th Memorial and prayed for those who died for Lithuania’s freedom.
The visit of the Vatican Secretary of State coincided with the ecclesiastical events of the Year of Divine Mercy in Lithuania. The visit offered an opportunity to discuss current challenges, such as migration, terrorism, the situation in the Middle East, and security situation in Ukraine. The insights of the Vatican on these matters are of great importance to Lithuania, as they offer an opportunity to both better assess global efforts of the international community in addressing these issues and learn, in the sense of spiritual experience, about the policy of the Holy See in promoting religious and civil coexistence, reducing social exclusion, and calling for sustainable synergy with environment.
Rosvaldas Gorbačiovas, Senior Advisor to the Speaker of the Seimas, tel. +370 5 239 6005, mob. +370 698 42 071, e-mail: [email protected]
