Viktorija Kurienė (Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania)
The Vilnius interwar period is often perceived as foreign, because the city was “occupied” and the stories about it were Polish and Jewish. This period usually falls out of the (national) discourse of Lithuanian history; however, the Catholic history of interwar Vilnius and the documents that reflect it can serve as a link in taming interwar Vilnius. Catholicism has linked interwar Vilnius and Kaunas with Catholic Europe; it connects interwar and today’s Vilnius, as well as Vilnius memory institutions that safeguard the fragments of the Catholic history of Vilnius. In my presentation, I review the Catholic documents from interwar Vilnius housed at the National Library of Lithuania. The documents are in the process of identification; thus, it is not fully known yet how many and what exactly is being stored. Using the archive of the Catholic Action Institute of Vilnius Archdiocese, I also talk about the implementation of the goals of this organization as well as the links with other Catholic countries through the analogous church institutions and their activities. The Catholic Action was the renewal of the Catholic Church initiated by Pope Pius XI in 1922. It included the involvement of Catholic laymen in the activities of the Church and expanding the activities to various areas of life, thus creating a society of active Catholics. From 1931, in Vilnius Archdiocese those activities were coordinated by the Catholic Action Institute of Vilnius Archdiocese.