Juozapas Skvireckas

His Excellency Juozapas Jonas Skvireckas
Archbishop of Kaunas
Church	Roman Catholic
Archdiocese	Kaunas
Appointed	5 April 1926
In office	1926–1959
Successor	Vincentas Sladkevičius
Orders
Ordination	24 June 1899
Consecration	13 July 1919 by Antanas Karosas
Personal details
Born	(1873-09-18)September 18, 1873 Pašilaičiai, Vilnius, Russian Empire
Died	December 3, 1959(1959-12-03) (aged 86) Zams, Austria
Nationality	Lithuanian

Juozapas Jonas Skvireckas (18 September 1873 – 3 December 1959) was a Lithuanian archbishop of Kaunas (1926–1959).

Skvireckas was born in Pašilaičiai or near Pumpėnai. He attended high school in Panevėžys and the seminary at Žemaičių Kalvarija, and he was ordained in 1899. During the First World War, he performed pastoral duties in Smolensk and Tula. He was made a titular bishop in 1919, and in 1925 he became archbishop of Kaunas.

From 1911 to 1937, he translated the Bible into Lithuanian; it was published in six volumes by the Society of Saint Casimir. During the occupation of the Baltic States by the Nazis, Skvireckas and his assistant, Bishop Vincentas Brizgys, initially welcomed the Nazis. Skvireckas provided chaplains for Lithuanian-crewed Nazi auxiliary units. Later, however, Skvireckas issued multiple protests to Nazi authorities regarding the conditions of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. He also sent reports to the Vatican, and in 1942 he started receiving instructions from the papal office. He intervened on behalf of the Jewish population, and in 1942 it was reported he was wounded by the Nazis in an incident that left another priest dead—however, it was in fact Archbishop Mečislovas Reinys that had been injured. In 1944, Skvireckas, Brizgys and over 200 other Lithuanian clergymen left Kaunas with retreating German forces and went into exile. He settled in Austria, where he died in Zams in 1959. After his death, the post of (arch)bishop of Kaunas was vacant until 1989.

References

• Archbishop Juozapas Skvireckas
• THE ARCHDIOCESE OF KAUNAS

Further reading

• "Arkivyskupas Juozas Skvireckas" by Arūnas Streikus, "Kauno Arkivyskupijos Naujienos", No. 3, winter of 1999
• Church Institution during the Period of Nazi Occupation in Lithuania Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Archbishop Skvireckas's diary, 1941 m. Birželio sukilimas (collection documents), ed. V. Brandišauskas, Vilnius, 2000
• Vilma Narkutė, The Confrontation Between the Lithuanian Catholic Church and the Soviet Regime, New Blackfriars, Volume 87 Issue 1011, pages 456–475, 2006