„I hope for open and constructive cooperation between the Church and law enforcement, transparency, and readiness to answer not only the question of who could have committed the crimes but also the important question – whether sufficient measures were taken in all cases to timely detect possible violence, prevent it, and inform the responsible institutions,“ the head of government stated on the social network „Facebook“ on Thursday.
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In turn, according to M. Sinkevičius, the Government must assess whether the current legal and institutional mechanisms sufficiently protect children in all environments – schools, families, sports, religious, and other organizations.
„If there are gaps, we must block them,“ he said and urged people who have experienced sexual violence not to be afraid to speak out.
According to the prime minister, today the most important thing is to think about the victims of crimes, „children whose trust may have been exploited, and about people who may carry the consequences of such experiences for their entire lives“.
„There is no and cannot be any tolerance for sexual violence against children. There are no duties, authority, institution, or status that could become protection from responsibility. The specific circumstances must be determined by law enforcement and the court. However, the state’s duty is to ensure that no possible crime is silenced, no victim is left alone, and the reputation of institutions is never placed above the safety of the person and the child,“ emphasized M. Sinkevičius.
Among other things, the prime minister emphasized that this case is not a matter of faith or an attack on the Church and believers.
„(However – BNS) respect for the Church cannot mean silence. On the contrary – moral authority obliges to raise the highest standards of responsibility,“ he pointed out.
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As BNS wrote, cases of two priests accused of sexual crimes against children have been handed over to the courts.
One priest is accused of sexual crimes against 11 minors. According to law enforcement data, 34 criminal episodes were recorded, crimes committed over 23 years – from 2002 to 2025, his case was transferred to the Vilnius District Court for consideration.
In another case transferred to the Vilnius City District Court, another priest is accused of possession of child pornography; there are no victims in this case.
According to the data from the news portal „Delfi“ and the „Liteko“ court schedule system, the accused are respectively Tadas Švedavičius and Ryšardas Peciunas.
The Vilnius Archdiocese states that it learned about the possibly offending priests from the prosecutor’s office, which initiated a pre-trial investigation. At that time, the priests were suspended, and canonical investigations were also initiated against them.
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