forced to resign. He returned to Lithuania in June 1934 for the first Lithuanian Eucharistic Congress in Kaunas. He had a round-trip ticket and was expecting to return to United States, but received orders from the Vatican to remain in Lithuania and work among local Russians. In October 1934, he held Eastern rite masses at the Church of St. Francis Xavier that attracted attention from Orthodox intelligentsia who were dissatisfied with the services of Metropolitan . He held additional Eastern Catholic masses at the Church of St. Gertrude but the interest quickly waned. He asked to be reassigned to United States, but was refused. In 1935–1936, he was the spiritual father of the Telšiai Priest Seminary. At the same time he visited various villages with larger populations of Eastern Orthodox and Old Believers, wrote articles to the press, including an academic study on the history and demographics of Eastern Orthodox and Old Believers in Lithuania, and published a book of popular readings for the faithful. In November 1936, both Bučys and the Marian Fathers petitioned Pope Pius XI to reassign Bučys to work for the Marian Fathers. The pope refused and appointed Bučys as the head of the new papal Mission for Spiritual Assistance for the Russians of Lithuania established by the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. He returned to Kaunas in summer 1937 and held Eastern rite masses at the St. Michael the Archangel Church. He had two to four assistants. They held lectures on the need to eliminate the East–West Schism, tried to convert local Eastern Orthodox priests, published religious literature, but failed to convert a single more prominent member of the intelligentsia or the clergy or establish a single parish. They tried to expand the mission to Latvia, but were blocked from entering the country. Bučys was disappointed and disillusioned with the mission as many prospective converts had some ulterior motives (e.g. financial gain). After the death of Pope Pius XI in February 1939, Bučys was reelected as the Superior-General of the Marian Fathers in July 1939 and finally allowed to leave for Rome. After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940, he organized Lithuanian-language broadcast on the Vatican Radio and presented its first program on 27 November 1940. He continued to present until spring 1941. Bučys supervised missions of Marian Fathers in London and Harbin that continued to spread Eastern Catholicism and prepared a breviary