ABSTRACT
In the Lithuanian samizdat journal Ausra, an article written under the pseudonym of P. Mastys expressed concern about the growing popularity of Eastern religions and cults. Mastys said that beneath the monolithic facade of official ideology and conformity, an increasing number of Lithuanians were trying to find their own answers to some of the most pressing problems of life. Mastys suggested some reasons for the growth in popularity of Eastern religions at the expense of Catholicism. The exotic and mysterious were often attractive, while the message of the Church was no longer new. Both Catholics and the government had expressed concern about the growing popularity of Eastern religions and fundamentalist Protestant sects. In a samizdat article, "Catholicism and the Intelligentsia in Contemporary Lithuania," Juozas Bocys noted a broadly-based religious reawakening in Lithuania in reaction to the spiritual vacuum caused by the sterility of official ideology.
