The search is not an easy one. The problem for the Church is that the enemy is not as easy to identify as it was in Soviet days. Egle Laumenskaite of the Centre for Religious Studies at Vilnius University paints a gloomy picture. She says while some two-thirds of the population claim to be Catholic, only about a fifth actually practice the faith regularly. Laumenskaite pins the blame on the Soviet era, which, she says, spoiled a sense of community among Lithuanians.
People are reluctant to come together.
Another problem is the Church itself. To its own detriment, says Laumenskaite, it has not been able to reject the confrontational approach it put to such good use in Soviet days. Ironically, the most Catholic nation among former Soviet republics is also one of the only nations anywhere in Europe that has seen something of a pagan revival. Nevertheless, the actual resurgence of Lithuania's old pantheistic religion has alarmed some Church leaders. One of the biggest pagan revival movements is the so-called Romuva , which harkens back to the gods of the sun, water and forests, emphasizing man's oneness with nature.