According to the rules effective from November 2024, people who want to work with children must have a special code confirming that they have not been convicted of serious and sexual crimes.
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“At the Ministry, we have agreed that we will probably tighten the checking of QR codes among priests,” the minister said to LRT radio on Monday.
“The church leadership must check. We will definitely do that once again, tighten it once again,” she emphasized.
Such comments from the minister appeared after law enforcement announced at the beginning of August that two priests had been charged with sexual crimes against minors.
As BNS wrote, 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 trial.
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 schedules system, the accused are respectively Tadas Švedavičius and Ryšardas Peciunas.
According to I. Ruginienė, the Church’s communication about the situation lacked “principledness and strictness.”
After the information about the transferred cases was announced, the Vilnius Archdiocese stated that it is responsibly cooperating with law enforcement, conducting canonical investigations, and emphasized that the accused remain suspended from duties.
According to the minister, in similar cases, the appropriate community reaction is also very important.
“If we talk about small, closed communities where everyone knows everything but for some reason remains silent, I always say that witnesses who remain silent also contribute to the criminal activity,” the minister insisted.
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