Pope receives Lithuania’s new ambassador

(September 07, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday welcomed Lithuania’s new ambassador to the Holy See Ms. Irena Vaišvilaité. At a formal ceremony at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, southeast of Rome, where the Pope is spending his summer, Vaišvilaité presented her credentials to the Pontiff. The 58-year old diplomat, who is unmarried, is a former advisor to the Lithuanian president and vice-chancellor of the European University of Humanities. She worked for Vatican Radio between 1991 and 1998. In an interview to Vatican Radio, Vaišvilaité said the Pope and she discussed an invitation by the Lithunaian president for a papal visit to the Baltic nation. In her conversation with the Pope she found him well informed about Lithuania and the current political situation. He spoke about development in post-communist societies and the change that came about in the past decades. He compared the mentalities of the generation grew up under the totalitarian Nazi and Soviet regimes and those who grew up under freedom. This brings out differences in attitudes towards freedom, liberties, rights and religion, the role of religion in society, the Pope pointed out. Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Lithuania began in 1991, the year the Holy see recognized the Baltica nation’s independence from the Soviet Union.