Mečislovas Reinys (5 February 1884 – 8 November 1953) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic titular archbishop and professor at Vytautas Magnus University. He was the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 1925 to April 1926. He was imprisoned by the Soviets in Vladimir Central Prison where he died in 1953. His beatification case was opened in 1998 and he was recognized as a martyr in 2000.
Born into a family of peasants, Reinys received his master's from the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy and doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. He returned to Lithuania in 1914 and became an active participant in the Lithuanian cultural and political life in Vilnius. He taught at Vilnius Priest Seminary, chaired the Lithuanian Education Society Rytas, and drafted political program of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party. In the interwar period, he was active in many other organizations and societies, including the Catholic youth organizations Ateitis and Pavasaris as well as the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science.
In 1922, he moved to Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania, and became a professor of psychology at Vytautas Magnus University. In September 1925, Reinys became the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Leonas Bistras. During his short tenure, Reinys began negotiations regarding the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact (signed in September 1926) and normalized Lithuania's relations with the Holy See that soured after the Concordat of 1925 with Poland. On 4 April 1926, Pope Pius XI issued a bull which established the ecclesiastical province in Lithuania, including the Diocese of Vilkaviškis of which Reinys was named coadjutor bishop. The bull was harshly criticized by the opposition forcing Reinys to resign. After a conflict with bishop Antanas Karosas, Reinys became more involved in diocesan affairs and started teaching at the Vilkaviškis Priest Seminary in 1934.
In July 1940, Reinys was appointed titular archbishop of Cypsela and auxiliary archbishop of Vilnius. This brought him to conflict with archbishop Romuald Jałbrzykowski who supported Polonization efforts. After Jałbrzykowski's arrest by the German Gestapo, Reinys became the administrator of the archdiocese and began undoing some of the Polonization efforts (e.g. replacing arrested Polish priest with Lithuanian or Belarusian priests). This brought him into conflict with Polish activists. After the Soviet re-occupation, Soviet security agencies attempted to persuade Reinys to cooperate. When he refused, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He died in Vladimir Central Prison in November 1953.
Biography Early life and education
Mečislovas Reinys was born on 5 February 1884 on a farm in near Daugailiai and Antalieptė, then part of the Russian Empire. He was the youngest of 11 children. His parents owned about of land. His father died when Reinys was seven from a kick by a horse.
Reinys received some education at home and at a primary school in Antalieptė. He was then taken in by his relative, a Catholic priest who worked in Muravanaja Ašmianka. Reinys attended a school there for three years. He then moved to live with relatives in Riga and attend the . Reinys was an excellent student and graduated with a gold medal in 1900. For some time, he worked as a tutor to earn some money.
From 1901 to 1905, he studied at the Vilnius Priest Seminary. He then received a government stipend for studies at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy. His professors included Kazimieras Jaunius, Vincent Hadleŭski, Zygmunt Łoziński, Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius, Adomas Jakštas, Pranciškus Būčys, Jonas Mačiulis-Maironis, Jan Cieplak. He was ordained a priest on 10 June 1907 in Saint Petersburg and held his first mass in his native parish church in Daugailiai. He graduated in 1909 with a master's degree in theology.
Doctoral studies He continued his studies at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). His professors included Maurice De Wulf, Albert Michotte, , . At the university, he was a member of a Lithuanian student society which read and wrote articles to various Lithuanian periodicals. He spent three vacations in Horsens (Denmark) doing pastoral work among Polish and Lithuanian workers. He defended his doctoral thesis about morality in the works of Vladimir Solovyov in 1912. It was one of the first works to discuss Solovyov's works in western Europe.
Reinys was interested not only in theology, but also in psychology, natural law, natural sciences, geology. After his doctorate, he continued to study natural sciences (including prof. ) in Leuven and philosophy (including prof. Georg Simmel) at the University of Strasbourg (France).
During his studies, Reinys traveled across Europe and learned multiple languages: Latin, Italian, French, English, Danish, German in addition to the local languages of Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish. He later also learned Spanish.
World War I in Vilnius Reinys returned to Lithuania just before the outbreak of World War I and became a vicar at the Church of St. Johns, Vilnius. He started working as a chaplain at the newly establish Lithuanian Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium and Teachers' Seminary maintained by the Lithuanian Education Society Rytas. He later became a teacher of religion, psychology, logic, natural sciences, and political economy. He became a professor at Vilnius Priest Seminary in 1916 and continued to teach until 1922. He taught sociology and philosophy.
During the German occupation, Reinys participated in the Lithuanian political life. He was associated with a small Lithuanian political club which debated Lithuania's post-war future. For this involvement, Reinys was interrogated by the German police in January 1917. Reinys participated in the Vilnius Conference in September 1917 and was elected to the central committee of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party which was established after the conference. He was one of the authors of the original party's program. He was reelected to the party's leadership in 1918 and 1925.
From November 1915 to December 1916, and again from August 1918 to June 1922, Reinys was chairman of the Lithuanian Education Society Rytas which maintained Lithuanian primary schools in Vilnius Region. He also worked with Ateitis and Pavasaris Catholic youth organizations. For two years, he was vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Scientific Society. In 1920, he was also elected to the board of the .
The Red Army captured Vilnius in early January 1919 at the start of the Lithuanian–Soviet War. Authorities of the proclaimed Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic arrested Reinys on 22 February 1919. He was held in Lukiškės Prison for giving a speech on 16 February, the first anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania. As Soviets were about to be pushed out of Vilnius by the Polish forces in April 1919, they took several prominent Lithuanians as hostages, including Reinys, Felicija Bortkevičienė, Juozas Vailokaitis, and Liudas Gira, and transported them to prisons in Daugavpils and Smolensk. On 24 July 1919, Vaclovas Sidzikauskas arranged a prisoner exchange in Daugailiai: 15 prominent Lithuanians, including Reinys, for 35 communists.
Interwar in Kaunas University professor In 1922, Reinys moved from Vilnius (which was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic) to Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania. Reinys was invited to teach at the University of Lithuania and head its department of psychology. At different times he taught general, comparative, and educational psychology, special topics in psychology, and led psychology practical. His lecture notes were published by students in 1931.
In 1931, the ruling Lithuanian Nationalist Union reduced the Faculty of Theology, eliminated the department of psychology, and laid off 18 professors. Reinys was also temporarily dismissed. This prompted Lithuanian clergy to revive ideas about a separate Catholic university. Reinys was in charge of this proposed university and was slated to become its rector. The Holy See approved the university in June 1932 and it was supposed to open in August 1932, but the Lithuanian Nationalist Union postponed it indefinitely. Since the Catholic university was not abolished, but only postponed, Reinys continued to seek official recognition of the university. He represented the university at various gatherings and societies up until 1940. He also prepared annual reports and organized lectures in the name of the university.
After the dismissal in 1931, Reinys quickly returned to the University of Lithuania, but only as a privatdozent, i.e. without a full-time salary. To compensate Reinys and other affected lecturers, remaining professors agreed to donate part of their salary. Reinys continued to teach at the university until 1940.
Minister of Foreign Affairs As a member of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, Reinys was selected by Prime Minister Leonas Bistras as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He served in this capacity from 25 September 1925 to 20 April 1926. Foreign diplomats and Lithuanian opposition did not consider him a strong or independent minister and believed he was assigned to the post only temporarily.
His predecessor, , was forced to resign when he attempted to normalize the relations with Poland. Therefore, after the Locarno Treaties, the new government searched for alternatives – normalize Lithuania's relations with the Holy See, sign a treaty with the Soviet Union, and search for allies in Germany, Latvia, or Estonia.
Lithuania's relations with the Holy See soured after the Concordat of 1925 with Poland which established an ecclesiastical province in Vilnius, thereby acknowledging Poland's claims to the city. Due to rising tensions, official diplomatic relations were severed. With the help of Archbishop Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevičius, Reinys reestablished diplomatic contacts with the Holy See and agreed to a three-step plan to normalize the relations. The first step was establishing an ecclesiastical province in Lithuania. On 4 April 1926, Pope Pius XI issued a bull which established the Archdiocese of Kaunas in place of the Diocese of Samogitia as well as new Dioceses of Kaišiadorys, Telšiai, Vilkaviškis, and Panevėžys. The Lithuanian opposition attacked the bull, accused the government of "surrendering" its claims to Vilnius, and claimed that Reinys served his ecclesiastical superiors in Vatican first and Lithuania second. This led to Reinys' resignation on 20 April 1926. He also resigned from the Christian Democratic Party.
In relations with Poland, Reinys had to respond to an incident when Polish border guards violated the border, captured about of forest near Kernavė, and took eight Lithuanian policemen as prisoners on 17–22 February 1926. The Lithuanian government prepared a protest note which Reinys personally delivered to Ishii Kikujirō, president of the Council of the League of Nations, on 12 March 1926. The protest was ignored which only bolstered Lithuanian government's decision to seek closer relations with the Soviet Union.
Reinys personally disapproved the government's decision to seek closer relations with the Soviet Union, but pursued its decision. The negotiations began in December 1925 when People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin stopped in Kaunas on his way to Moscow. Reinys prepared the first draft of the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact which was signed in September 1926, almost five months after Reinys' resignation.
Coadjutor bishop of Vilkaviškis