The Archbishop Metropolitan of Vilnius, Gintaras Grušas wears a lot of hats. The 61-year-old prelate, in addition to being the ordinary of Vilnius, is also the bishop for the military, the President of the Bishop’s conference in Lithuania, and the President of the Council of European Bishop’s Conferences. “When I’m flying, I sleep,” he told Drew Mariani.
Grušas also has a biography akin to the Pope. Like Leo XIV, Archbishop Grušas is an American-born prelate with a math degree who shepherds in a foreign land.
War Next Door
Hovering over the Archbishop’s episcopate is the ongoing war in Ukraine. While Lithuania does not border Russia or Ukraine, it does share a border with Russian neighbors Latvia and Belarus. Grušas told Drew Mariani that two days before the war began, he was in Rome with ambassadors to the Holy Sea and the European Union discussing the prospects of conflict. “From our Lithuanian experience after 50 years of occupation and knowing the Russian mentality, I told the ambassadors, the image of the Russian communist was the bear.” If one backs away from the bear, he will attack you, Grušas said, “ What you need to do is to punch the bear in the nose. And then he will retreat.”
The archbishop is concerned that the West does not understand this reality. “You don’t want an escalation, but if the war isn’t stopped, it’s going to expand; history tells us that.”
Ultimately, the war will end either by prayer or force, he told Drew. “I prefer peace.”
Divine Mercy
Despite the dire threat of war, Grušas has a deep devotion to Divine Mercy. Prior to his life as the Archbishop of Vilnius, the city where the original image of Divine Mercy resides, Grušas saw mercy “prefigured” in his life.
It was at Franciscan University of Steubenville where he was first introduced to the Chaplet, and the first retreat of his seminary formation was on the subject of Divine Mercy. Grušas thinks God had “been setting me up this whole time.”
Next year, Vilnius will be the site for the Sixth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy. The Congress was started in the early 2000s to promote the message of mercy. Previous congresses were held in Rome, Poland, Columbia, Philippines, and Samoa. The congress will take place June 7-12, 2026.