Audrys Bačkis

Audrys Juozas Bačkis was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 1 February 1937 and grew up in exile — his family fled the Soviet occupation when he was a child. Ordained a priest in Rome on 18 March 1961, he joined the Holy See's diplomatic service in 1964, serving in the Philippines, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Nigeria, and as undersecretary of the Council for Public Affairs of the Church (1979–88). Appointed titular Archbishop of Meta and pro-nuncio to the Netherlands on 5 August 1988, he was consecrated by John Paul II on 4 October.

On 24 December 1991, as Lithuania emerged from Soviet rule, he was appointed Archbishop of Vilnius — the exiled son coming home — and presided over the Lithuanian bishops' conference for two terms. He organized John Paul II's 1993 apostolic journey to Lithuania and became the Church's voice in the country's return to Europe: “We are coming back home,” he told Aid to the Church in Need in 2003, on Lithuania rejoining Christian Europe. John Paul II created him a cardinal on 21 February 2001, with the title of Natività di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo a Via Gallia; he voted in the conclaves of 2005 and 2013. He retired on 5 April 2013. His motto is sub tuum praesidium — “under your protection.”