A huge crowd gathered to hear the Vatican leader honor Jewish Holocaust victims and those persecuted by the Soviets. On the first papal trip to the Baltics in 25 years, Francis warned against resurgent anti-Semitism.
Image: Reuters/I. Kalnins
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Pope Francis on Sunday remembered the near extermination of Lithuania's Jewish community during World War II while speaking to a crowd of around 100,000 people on the second of his four-day trip to the Baltics.
At an open-air mass in Lithuania's second-largest city, Kaunas, he honored the Jewish victims of the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation.
"The Jewish people suffered insults and cruel punishments," Francis recounted to those gathered in the city's Santakos Park.
The pope also paid tribute to Lithuanians who were deported to Siberian gulags or tortured and oppressed during five decades of Soviet occupation.
"Earlier generations still bear the scars of the period of the occupation, anguish at those who were deported, uncertainty about those who never returned, and shame for those who were informers and traitors," he said.
He added that Lithuania "still shudders at the mention of Siberia, or the ghettos of Vilnius and Kaunas, among others."
Warning on anti-Semitism
The pope also warned about a resurgence of "pernicious" anti-Semitic sentiments that fueled the Holocaust and hinted of his displeasure at the historical revisionism taking place across Eastern Europe, as some countries seek to reframe their role in the Nazi genocide.
He denounced those who get caught up in debating who was more virtuous in the past and warned against the temptation to desire primacy and domination over others.
5 years of Pope Francis
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has tried to reform the Catholic Church by preaching and exemplifying humility. Some have applauded him for his efforts, while others have hurled criticism.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Agentur Andina/J. C. Guzmán
'Buona sera!'
On March 13, 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio greeted the crowd in St. Peter's Square in the heart of Rome with a simple "good evening!" moments after the Conclave had selected him as the new pope. He thus began his term with a down-to-earth tone that has marked his stewardship of the Catholic Church ever since.
Image: Reuters
Reform committee 'K9'
The new pontiff immediately tackled topics that the Catholic Church had been discussing before his election. He set up a nine-person cardinal conference to reform the church's organization and direction. The guiding principle: the Roman Catholic Church is not an end in itself. Instead, it should seek to spread the teachings of the Bible and bring the Vatican and its followers closer together.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano
Supporting the weak
The deaths of migrants crossing from Africa to Europe are "a thorn in the heart," said Pope Francis on his first bridge building trip to Lampedusa. At the time of his visit in the summer of 2013, thousands of migrants were on the Italian island hoping to receive legal permits to continue their journey onto the European mainland.
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Symbol of humility
It aligned perfectly with his own message of the "poor church:" the picture of Pope Francis with the 30-year-old Renault 4 that he had received as a gift from a pastor in Verona. Francis reportedly wanted to drive the car, but was not allowed to due to security concerns. The symbol of modesty has endured.
Image: Reuters
Francis the celebrity
Francis' worldly style quickly made him an icon for progressive Catholics and other Christians. Even non-Christians applauded the pope and rubbed their eyes in amazement at the contrast between Francis and his conservative and academic predecessor, Pope Benedict. After 10 months in office, Francis became the first pope to make the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/ROLLING STONE
Controversial bridge builder
Francis takes his task as bridge builder very seriously. He has acted as a mediator between warring parties in civil conflicts in central Africa and Colombia and also helped bring an end to frozen relations between the US and Cuba. With an eye toward the Mexican-US border, he has also urged US President Donald Trump to build bridges rather than walls.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Agentur Andina/J. C. Guzmán
Believers and religions from all corners of the earth
Francis has also tried to build bridges between confessions and religions. He prayed at the wailing wall in Jerusalem and met the Grand Mufti Mohammad Hussein. In Egypt, he visited the head of the Coptic Church, Tawadros II, and Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb. In Myanmar, he spoke to Buddhist monks and in Havanna, he met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kyrill I (pictured).
Image: Getty Images/AFP/A. Roque
People person
Francis spontaneously wed a couple on an airplane during a trip to Chile in January 2018. The two crew members were traveling with the pope on a flight from the capital Santiago to the northern city of Iquique. They had apparently told Francis of their plans to marry.
Image: Reuters/Osservatore Romano
Criticism from within the church
Francis' reform course has been too radical for some clerics. This poster in Rome accused Francis of showing no mercy within the church. He reportedly also has little time for dissent within the Vatican. Some church members think his course is too secular, his humility too bold, its display too media-orientated. The essence of religiosity – spirituality – some fear, could get lost in it all.
Image: picture-alliance/Zuma Press
Sexual abuse scandal in the Church
But the major challenge now faced by Francis is the problem of sexual abuse, including of minors, by church representatives. In January, the pontiff was heavily criticized for supporting Chilean Bishop Juan Barros (pictured right), accused of an abuse cover-up. On a recent trip to Ireland, the pope begged for forgiveness amid an abuse scandal there. But critics say much more is needed.
Image: Getty Images/C. Reyes
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The revisionism issue has divided Lithuanians, where ordinary people executed Jews alongside the Nazi occupiers, wiping out the Jewish population of the capital of Vilnius during the war.
Lithuanian shame remains
More than 200,000 Lithuanian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The country's Jewish community today numbers about 3,000.
Vilnius had been known for centuries as the "the Jerusalem of the North" because of its importance to Jewish thought and politics.
Sunday is the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the Jewish ghetto in the capital, Vilnius. On September 23 and 24, 1943 its surviving Jewish residents were either executed or sent off to concentration camps.
Poland: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 75 years on
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This year also marks the Baltic countries' 100-year anniversary of their independence from the Russian Empire at the end of World War I.
The Vatican later refused to recognize their 1940 annexation into the Soviet Union under a secret agreement with Nazi Germany.
Except for the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation, the Baltic countries remained part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in the early 1990s.
On Sunday afternoon, the pope was due to visit a monument to the Kaunas ghetto victims before heading to a former Soviet KGB prison where hundreds were murdered and thousands, including many priests, shipped off to Siberia.
Francis will then travel to Latvia and Estonia on Monday and Tuesday to mark their 100th anniversaries of independence and to encourage the Catholic faith in the Baltics, which saw five decades of Soviet-imposed religious repression and state-sponsored atheism.
