Father Pjeter Mëshkalla, a Catholic clergyman, was born in Shkodër. He completed his primary and secondary education in his hometown, and his higher education in Linz (Austria), Gorica, Slovenia and the Faculty of Philosophy in Naples (Italy). In 1931 he was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus in Shkodër and taught literature, Albanian language and philosophy at the Pontifical Seminary. In 1934, he founded the “St. John Bosco” district for the education of youth, and continued in Tirana, in 1937, in the “St. Peter” district. In 1945, the communist regime asked for cooperation. But he not only refused, but at the ceremony held on the occasion of Luigj Bumçi’s death, he openly exposed the regime. For this reason, in 1946 he was arrested. After a long investigation, on April 18, 1947, the Military Court of the Tirana Garrison sentenced him to 15 years of deprivation of liberty and forced labor and the loss of rights for five years, as one of the founders of the “Bashkimi Kombëtar“ (“National Unity”) organization and for agitation and propaganda. He served his sentence in several labor camps and in Burrel prison, from where he was released in 1961, but without the right to serve as a priest. When the “Cultural Revolution” was taking place in Shkodër, he sent a letter to Mehmet Shehu, where he wrote at the end: “Truly, even the most mad enemy of the government could not perform a more hostile propoganda, in 22 years, than you have, in this country ” . Therefore, on April 29, 1967, at the Pedagogical Institute of Shkodra, a meeting was organized to “unmask” his activity. And on July 19 of the same year, with decision no. 44, the Court of Shkodra sentenced him to 10 years of imprisonment and confiscation of property for “agitation and propaganda”. After his release in 1978, he was interned in the Vlora camp. He passed away in 1988. He is the first cleric who was decorated with the “Torch of Democracy” in 1992. (In the photo: Pjeter Mëshkalla)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. V , Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, “WestPrint“, Tirana, 2016, page 338.
Graphic processing: AHCF
