The Expression of Catholic Social Thinking in Lithuania at the Beginning of the 20th Century

摘要

The article deals with the circumstances and characteristics of expressing Catholic social thinking in Lithuania. Catholic intellectual and organizational forces and the main activity trends and results are discussed with reference to the literature and critical analysis of historical sources. The paper explains that the Catholic sociologists of Kaunas Diocese were united by one common feature – efforts to harmonize social theory with practice. While analyzing social issues and proposing an appropriate decision in particular, they relied not only on the theory but also on the sobriety and historic wisdom of the nation. Consequently, it seems to be that their theoretical considerations mainly had to ground social activity. On the other hand, subjective indicators also influenced the situation and involved people having wide interests and expressing themselves in different areas of scientific and social life. Some of those tried to theoretically analyse social problems constantly looking at the pointed questions through specific social phenomena and realia (A. Kaupas, S. ?ult?) while the other part expressed themselves not only in the sociological area but also in pedagogical, psychological, philosophical and economic fields (A. Jak?tas-Dambrauskas, J. Matulaitis, M. Reinys, K. Paltarokas, F. Kem??is). The third part used to establish societies, supported consumer companies and personally was actively involved in their activities (K. Ol?auskas, P. Janu?evi?ius, M. Krupavi?ius, J. Vailokaitis).Despite the variety of social interests, Catholic sociologists were united by a common objective – while presenting a common critical viewpoint on social phenomena, to service Lithuania and its people enshrining the hope of regaining independence and provisions for independent and responsible activity. Article in Lithuanian