Sunday Voice, Catholic newspaper

Šventadieno Balsas (Sunday Voice)

Soon after arrival in Australia it became evident to Lithuanians that a newspaper in their own language was needed, as many did not speak English at the time.

When Father Jatulis arrived in Adelaide there was no Lithuanian church and he would conduct mass in Lithuanian in several Australian churches.  A newspaper would serve to keep parishioners informed.  On 29 March 1953, Father Jatulis began to print a bulletin on a copying machine, the Sunday Voice (Šventadieno Balsas) was born. 

Father Jatulis produced the bulletin until he was recalled to Rome, when the following priest, Father Kungys took up the role.   The editors was always the priest, following Kungys was Kazlauskas, Dauknys, Spurgis.  If they were will or away the task was passed on to Pranas Pušdešris.

Each edition would feature a religious article, thankyous, coming events and notifications.  Some advertisements were used to offset the cost of production.

The bulletin was funded by Lithuanian Caritas Inc which comes from the parishioner’s donations.  For many years two couples Valerija and Bronius Masionis and Petronelė and Antanas Dancevičius would fold and post each paper.