LITHUANIA: 100 year old Polish priest Josef Obremski visited by Lithuanian and Polish Presidents Valdas Adamkus and Lech Kaczynski

Record ID: 599560

  • Title: LITHUANIA: 100 year old Polish priest Josef Obremski visited by Lithuanian and Polish Presidents Valdas Adamkus and Lech Kaczynski
  • Date: 16th March 2006
  • Summary: POLISH PRESIDENT LECH KACZYNSKI AND LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT VALDAS ADAMKUS ARRIVING IN OBREMSKI'S ROOM VARIOUS OF ADAMKUS AND KACZYNSKI SPEAKING WITH OBREMSKI (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lithuania
  • Country: Lithuania
  • Topics: Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA6IY6TZZG6WTZWXNAVKKU6OP3A
  • Story Text: Despite being 100 years old, Polish priest Josef Obremski is making an effort to look his best for expected visitors.
    A little later in the day, he will be host to both the president of his own country and that of his adopted one.
    As his hair was brushed and he dressed in the robes of his profession, he mused on the secret of his longevity.
    "I'd like to invite everyone to start believing in God. And people who believe in God must be jolly. In all situations, like death or life, people must always be jolly. I was always jolly and never paid attention to the things happening around me, and that is the explanation for my long life," he said.
    Obremski was born in 1906 in a village near Ostrow Mazovetska in Poland. At 25 years old he began his priestly duties in the Lithuanian village of Turgeliai and after the Second World War, moved to his current home of Maisiagala, a town with a large Polish minority.
    It seems the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, who was touring Lithuania on Tuesday (March 14) couldn't help but drop in and visit his remarkable countryman.
    As another of the town's priests, Josef Juzef, said, "The Polish president is visiting Maisiagala for us. For the citizens of the city, it is very important, because the president will visit priest Josef Obremski, who is celebrating 100 years of life and 75 years of service to the priesthood."
    Kaczynski, accompanied by Lithuania's president, Valdas Adamkus spent half an hour of his busy first official visit to Lithuania chatting with Obremski.
    The priest lived up to his determination to be 'jolly' while entertaining his visitors, while almost 200 people gathered outside to bear witness to the event.
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