100 Years of the Concordat between Lithuania and the Holy See

100 Years of the Concordat between Lithuania and the Holy See

The concordat between Lithuania and the Holy See of 27 September 1927 was one of the first church-state agreements the Vatican concluded with an Eastern European country after the First World War. It regulated the legal status of the Catholic Church in the restored Lithuanian state, guaranteeing it property rights, control over Catholic schooling, and independent administration of its dioceses. Beyond its domestic political significance, the agreement carried a diplomatic dimension for Lithuania: it underscored international recognition of Lithuanian sovereignty and anchored the country within the European order of the interwar period. The Holy See was thus one of the early pillars in the foreign policy network of the newly founded state.

The significance of the concordat extends into the present. Although the agreement remained legally suspended during the Soviet era, the Catholic Church in Lithuania was always more than a religious institution — it was a bastion of national identity and civil resistance. After independence in 1990, diplomatic relations with the Vatican were quickly restored; a new framework agreement took effect in 2001. The 1927 concordat is regarded as the historical foundation of this relationship. In 2027, Lithuania commemorates the hundredth anniversary of this treaty with a 2-euro coin.