Nausėdienė links faith with practical help for people in need
Saturday 12th September 2026 on 18:00 in
Lithuania
Lithuanian First Lady Diana Nausėdienė said preserving faith and helping people in need are not separate realities, LRT reported. She made the remarks at a ceremony in Kaunas on Saturday marking the 35th anniversary of the Maltese Order Relief Service in Lithuania.
Nausėdienė said faith was not merely an inner conviction but had to become action that affected other people. She said the Maltese Order’s motto, “Preserving faith and helping those in need,” reflected the idea that faith without deeds is dead.
“Love of one’s neighbour is not an abstract category. It is an active decision to become a neighbour to everyone who suffers, has worries or experiences the oppressive burden of loneliness,” she said.
She said people who believed that solidarity, Christian values and help for the weakest should build bridges between states and societies had shaped the relationship between independent Lithuania and the Sovereign Order of Malta from the beginning.
Nausėdienė also highlighted the Maltese Order Grand Master John Dunlap’s state visit to Lithuania in June. During the visit, he met Maltese volunteers and took part in the Sixth World Apostolic Mercy Congress in Vilnius.
She thanked the Maltese community for projects including Meals on Wheels and Maltese Soup, ongoing assistance to lonely and low-income elderly people, the expanding network of children’s day centres and efforts to involve and empower a new generation of young Maltese volunteers.
According to Nausėdienė, more than 1,700 adult volunteers and 600 young Maltese volunteers help more than 4,000 elderly people and hundreds of young people each year. She also mentioned the St John the Baptist nursing home in Viekšnaliai, where 28 elderly people receive care supported by the Maltese.
She said the Maltese contribution had been particularly important during the pandemic and after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, when thousands of Ukrainians arrived in Lithuania needing humanitarian, psychological and social assistance.
The Lithuanian First Lady is a longtime patron and participant in the Maltese Soup fundraising campaign. The Maltese Order’s first humanitarian aid reached Lithuania in 1989.