He was one of the leading representatives of the underground Catholic Church during the Soviet Union. Lithuanian Jesuit Father and Bishop Jonas Boruta sj has died. After the fall of communism, Jonas Boruta served as provincial, church rector and in various capacities for the Church in Lithuania. 

After finishing high school in 1962, Jonas Boruta tried to enter the Kaunas seminary, but was refused admission by the Soviet authorities because of his background. In the same year, he started studying physics at Vilnius University and continued to work at the Institute of Physics after graduating in 1970. In 1975, he started to study theology in secret at the seminary. In 1981, he entered the secret novitiate of the Jesuit Province of Lithuania. In 1982, he obtained his doctorate in physics and mathematics and in 1992, he was awarded the title of Doctor of Natural Sciences. On 5 August 1982, Jonas Boruta was secretly ordained a priest in a small town. 

After the arrest of Sigitas Tamkevičius sj, the editor of the underground magazine "The Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church", Jonas Boruta replaced him from 1983 to 1989. On 2 June 1989, the Jesuit took his final vows. He then assumed the responsibility of Provincial of the Jesuit Province of Lithuania until 1997, while serving as Rector of St. Casimir's Church from 1990 to 1997 and as Prefect of St. John's Church in Vilnius since 1991. 

Since 1991 he has taught Church History at Vilnius University. In 1997 he was appointed titular bishop of the Diocese of Vulturara and auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Vilnius. From 1997 to 2002 he was General Secretary of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference. In 2002 he was appointed Bishop of Telšiai by Pope John Paul II. From 2002 to 2011 he was Chairman of the Liturgical Commission, and from 2002 to 2014 Chairman of the Ecumenical Council of the Lithuanian Bishops' Conference. 

Since 2017 he has been Bishop Emeritus of Telšiai. Father Boruta had been living in a nursing home in Marijampole since autumn 2022 due to his increasingly poor health. He died there on 19 December. 

Jesuits ECE