ON JULY 8, 1987, as official representative of the Vatican to the Millenary of the Russian Orthodox Church, his Eminence, Jaime Cardinal Sin became the first Catholic prelate to visit Lithuania since the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Born on August 31, 1928 in Aklan, Cardinal Sin, Archbishop emeritus of Manila, attended the 600th anniversary celebration of Christianity in Lithuania.
Cardinal Sin took part in the celebration despite friction between the Soviet government and the church over the Vatican’s refusal to acknowledge Soviet sovereignty in that Baltic republic.
He described his trip to Lithuania as a “pilgrimage of friendship and love”. He died on June 21, 2005 at the age of 76.
