Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevicius; Lithuanian Prelate

Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevicius, 79, who battled for church rights when heavily Roman Catholic Lithuania was under Soviet control. He had served as archbishop of Kaunas in Lithuania until his retirement four years ago. Pope John Paul II said he was “deeply saddened” by the death of a prelate who “never allowed himself to be intimidated.” John Paul named Sladkevicius a cardinal in 1988, the first from Lithuania since it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Lithuania regained independence in 1991. Soviet authorities had long hindered him from performing his religious duties and he was held under virtual house arrest from 1963 to 1982. On Sunday in Kaunas.