ABSTRACT
The Vatican's Ostpolitik has been played out against a background of continuing persecution in the Soviet Union. The position of the Church, in fact, has deteriorated since the Papal initiative. In Lithuania, the Church has two archdioceses and four dioceses , although none has a residential bishop and they are presently managed as four administrative units. In Latvia, the Roman Catholic Church is a minority and, although certainly sharing in the torments afflicting the Lithuanian Catholic Church, a dissent movement has not grown around it. In the East European states, as in the Soviet Union, the Vatican was involved with the leaders of the Communist parties, foreign ministers, the various "peace" groups, the state security organs, and the ubiquitous office of religious affairs. An additional argument for better relations is that the Vatican has accepted the fact, probably soon after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, that Soviet control of Eastern Europe is a long term reality.
