Emilia Hrabovec: The Vatican Ostpolitik and Czechoslovakia. National Aspects of the Political-Ecclesiastical Negotiations. In: A. Fejérdy (ed.): The Vatican Ostpolitik 1958-1978. Responsibility and Witness during John XXIII and Paul VI, Roma 2015 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies, 2019
The oncoming of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1948 meant for churches and religious communities the "nationalization" of church property and the implementation of supervision through the State Office for Church Affairs. The communist state never thought about the separation of church and state, but rather assumed such a step would be in given historical conditions an increase in the social impact of churches. The consequence of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia was a fusion of the Uniate Church in Slovakia with the Orthodox Church. The pressure on the church caused various illegal activities that became the target of persecution by state security forces. The Prague Spring was the culmination of attempts at social reform in Czechoslovakia that were intensively conducted after January 1968. The weakened grip on power and the overall trend of democratization led to a significant recovery in activities of churches, until they were suppressed in August 1968 by Warsaw Pact troops. The paper is an attempt to analyze the most significant reversal in church policy of Czechoslovakia in connection with the democratization of socialism under the influence of Alexander Dubček's reformism. It follows this development through the prism of Soviet Union concerns about the weak position of the Soviet bloc, as well as the suppression of reforms, and the subsequent establishment of the Slovak Republic in the framework of a socialist federation. It notes the role of civil society activists and Catholic dissidents who developed vastly different level of activity in both parts of the federation. Finally, it aims at the synthesis of knowledge of the interactions of religious institutions and elites and the communist government and political elites in the period around 1968.
Czech Journal of Contemporary History, 2020
In the author´s opinion, research projects dealing with the Catholic Church in the Czech Lands since the installment of the Communist regime in 1948 are somewhat closed in that there is very little communication between “ecclesiastic” and “non-ecclesiastic” historians. The article aims to describe causes of the situation and propose a way in which research into the history of the Catholic Church in the period referred to above could be included in broader discussions about the nature of the Communist dictatorship. The author opines that one of the reasons of the introversion is an intensive overreliance on works of the historian Karel Kaplan, which turns the attention of researchers away from topics not directly related to the repression of the Catholic Church and its representatives. In addition, the author questions the stereotypical presentation of the Communist Party and the Catholic Church in post-war Czechoslovakia as two irreconcilable opponents, mentioning their overall consensus and important contact points during the so-called Third Republic (1945–1948), using the example of the Communist historian and politician Zdeněk Nejedlý (1878–1962) and the Catholic author Adolf Kajpr (1902–1959), and also certain intersections of the Communist and the Catholic identities since 1948. The study outlines a possibility to capture the issue using a prism of concepts of legitimacy and hegemony based on the situation prevailing during the existence of the Third Republic, and thus open the research to new questions.
Political theology in socialist Czechoslovakia: a forgotten story
Identity Studies, 2012
This article is supposed to be an overview of the trends that existed in the theological thought of socialist Czechoslovakia. The author’s purpose is to offer a brief sketch of the evolution of theological sentiment in the country and to outline some of the forms it has taken – in particular, I will stress the difference between Czech and Slovak approaches to the problem. This article will focus on “underground”, “dissident” Catholic theology – although the theological justification of loyalty to the regime as suggested by various Catholic movements established “from above” are also of considerable interest, these two currents is logical to consider separately. Published in: Identity Studies. – 2012. – N 3. – P. 5–26.
The Holy See and Czechoslovakia 1945-1948 in the Context of the Nascent Cold War
The spectre of Communist expansion as a result of the Second World War represented for Pope Pius XII one of the greatest concerns. The unambiguously pro-Soviet orientation of the Czechoslovak government in exile and the crucial influence of Communists in the inner architecture of the restored state convinced the Holy See that Czechoslovakia was already in 1945 fully absorbed into the Soviet sphere of influence. This fact strengthened the Pope's conviction of the necessity to resume relations with Prague as soon as possible and to send a nuncio there who would provide reliable information and protect the interests of the Church threatened both by open persecution and by propaganda manoeuvres in favour of a "progressive Catholicism". The importance of the relations with Czechoslovakia stood out also in the international perspective, in which Czechoslovakia, in contrast to Poland or Hungary, seemed to be the last observatory still accessible to the Vatican diplomacy in the whole East-Central Europe. The year 1947 represented a caesura in the relations between the Holy See and Czechoslovakia. In the international context, this year was generally perceived by the Vatican as a definitive reinforcement of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. In the Czechoslovak framework, the greatest importance was ascribed to the political crisis in Slovakia in autumn 1947, during which the Communists definitively took over the political power in Slovakia. The lost struggle over the predominantly Catholic Slovakia, that for some time had been considered by the Vatican one of very few hopes for the defence of Christian interests in the Republic, was perceived by the Holy See as a dominant breakthrough on the way to the total Communist transformation of Czechoslovakia. While in the immediate postwar period the Holy See had tried to come to terms with Czechoslovakia also at the price of some compromises, in winter 1947/1948 the last hopes for a diplomatic solution vanished and were replaced by the conviction that in the confrontation with Communism not diplomatic, but spiritual weaponsprayer, testimony, martyrdom-were of crucial importance.
Not even the communist movement in Czechoslovakia was able to avoid the specter of Czechoslovakism. For several generations of Slovak communists it represented a burning question, while for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunistická strana Československa, KSČ) it was a burdensome, recurring problem. A peculiarity of the internationalist and ideocratic communist movement was the fact that it did not approach the question of Czechoslovakism, and the related issue of the Czech-Slovak relationship in an isolated way. Both fell into a wider bundle of topics coined the "national question," to which Marxist intellectuals had intensively devoted themselves since the end of the nineteenth century. They were responding to the growing nationalism of their age and particularly to its influence among the working-class and in the socialist movement. The issue was especially palpable in the multinational states of pre-First World War Europe. 2 No clear answer or greater consensus regarding this phenomenon, especially in relation to its role in the further development of society towards socialism, has emerged among Marxist intellectuals. There were even greater divisions in the approaches to this increasingly urgent topic, along with diverging tendencies within the communist movement, its right/left split, and the influence of other, non-Marxist conceptions of the nation before the First World War. 3 During the interwar period the national question remained a theoretical and practical challenge for the communist movement, too. Ideologically and organizationally it fell under the Third Communist International (Comintern, 1919-1943). The current political line, which was accepted by the Comintern, played a key role in the attitude of communist parties to various manifestations of nationalism. However, the application of a universal line in the specific domestic circumstances proved problematic. In general, two fundamental approaches were possible. The first was the dogmatic party approach, which did not transgress the dictates of the then political direction created at the center of the movement, whether at home (Prague) or abroad (Moscow). The second, which always existed alongside the first, did transgress the enclosed and rigid political-ideological dimension through its "more creative" application of less orthodox concepts. These
Latent Czechoslovakism: a topic of politicization for nineteenth-century liberal elites
Czechoslovakism, 2021
The topic of Czechoslovakism is firmly established, and apprehensible within the formation process and existence of the Czech and Slovak shared state. While the construction of the Czechoslovak state presumed a relationship between the two nations and this relationship's reciprocal arrangement, the concept itself, and to some extent, the approach to Czechoslovakism, declared the existence of a singular and compact entity, which was meant to overcome and thereby relativize the relationship. Only with the state's formation in the fall of 1918 did the merging of the thus far only close, correlative linear movement of two national communities gain its own logic, legitimacy and persuasiveness. To evaluate the preconditions of this process prior to the outbreak of World War I, and especially in the deeper nineteenth century, we must rely almost exclusively on analyzing the formation and changes of the Czech-Slovak relationship, in which the conception of a compact Czechoslovak identity played a merely peripheral or stand-in role. Indications of a hidden, somehow latent Czechoslovakism emerged from the intuitive beliefs of certain elites and were based on the linguistic and cultural affinity of the two societies. However, Czechoslovakism's definition, justification and propagation were not motivated by any concrete need or interest. Such a motivation surfaced only with the efforts of the newly ascending middle-class representatives and the presentation and implementation of their own program. Let us thus ask ourselves whether and to what extent this feeling of intuitive togetherness was put into effect and potentially elaborated during the time when cultural-linguistic and especially political programs were being formulated. I will endeavor to use the transformation process of nationalism from a generally cultural to a political form as our frame for describing the character and development of Czech-Slovak relations prior to the ascendence of real political Czechoslovakism. Since Czech society made significant progress in its efforts to establish and implement political and constitutional programs toward the end of the period under study, I focus not exclusively but especially on its attitude toward Slovaks and its attempts to make use of Czech-Slovaks ties.
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe (OPREE), Vol. 43 : Iss. 1 , Article 3, pp. 18 - 59, 2023
This research examines the most important historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and religious factors before, during, and after the reign of Communism in Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 2021 and their effect on the extreme increase in atheism and decrease in Christianity, particularly Roman Catholicism, in the present-day Czech Republic. It devotes special attention to the role of the Clandestine Catholic Church (Ecclesia Silentii) and the changing policies of the Holy See vis-à-vis this Church, examining these policies' impact on the continuing decline of Roman Catholicism in the Czech Republic after the collapse of Communism. The article also deals with Pope Pius XII's Secret Mandates of 1948-1950, the Second Vatican Council, and the Holy See's Ostpolitik. Scholars, who previously relied only on the views of the Czechs, blame the unprecedented drop in Christianity, the near-total destruction of the Catholic Church, and the rise in atheism on the Czechoslovak communist government's four decades of totalitarianism. Although the increase in atheism and decrease in Christianity were substantial during the era of Communism from 1948 to 1989, our data indicate that the decline in Christianity, particularly the historically predominating Roman Catholicism, did not commence with the 1948 communist coup d’état but traces its origins to the breakdown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the conclusion of WWI and the establishment of Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1918. What's more, this research shows that the most significant and unprecedented steep deterioration of the Christian Faith, namely Roman Catholicism, did not occur during the era of Communism but only after the Czechoslovak communist government collapsed in 1989. This massive decay did not happen even during the most extraordinary communist persecution of the Catholic Church during the era of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia. This research further finds that the Holy See's ill-advised policies and systematic, sustained, and prevalent failures in leadership, guidance, and teachings are responsible for the near destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and especially the end destruction of the Clandestine Catholic Church (Ecclesia Silentii), in the Czech and Slovak Republics after the fall of Communism. These failures furthermore contributed to the Czech Republic, the historical lands of Bohemia and Moravia that once were in the center of Christendom, degenerating into the most atheist country in Europe and the world today. Vitkovic, Scott (2023) "The Czech Republic: From the Center of Christendom to the Most Atheist Nation of the 21st Century. Part 1. The Persecuted Church: The Clandestine Catholic Church (Ecclesia Silentii) in Czechoslovakia During Communism 1948-1991," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 43: Iss. 1, Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2148.2400 Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol43/iss1/3 http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=58682075300
This article presents an analysis of Czechoslovak political history of the first half of the 1970s and the question of who would succeed General Ludvík Svoboda (1895–1979) as Czechoslovak President. The emphasis is on the role of Gustáv Husák (1913–1991), who emerged from the political crisis of 1968–69 as the most powerful actor, and was, at the 14th Congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, confi rmed as General Secretary of the Party. Using Soviet archives, the author points to differences between the individual members of the Party leadership, and particularly to the lack of unity amongst the so-called ‘healthy forces’. According to him, it is fair to talk about the disintegration of this bloc, which had been formed during the Prague Spring, into several smaller groups. The secretary of the Central Committee of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Vasil Biľak (1917–2014), was, in consequence of this and Soviet pressure, forced to abandon any ambitions to stand at the head of the Party, and had to be satisfi ed, instead, with the position of Number Two in the Party. The Soviet leadership derived social stability in Czechoslovakia from the fi rmness of the Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership, and in particular counted on the collaboration of Husák and Biľak, and it made this clear to both men. Svoboda’s failing health prevented him from properly discharging his duties as President of Czechoslovakia, but he did not even try to hold on to the presidency, even though, in the interest of political stability, he was confi rmed in offi ce in March 1973, and remained something of a temporary solution. The article does not seek to challenge or confi rm the hypothesis that he was forced to step down in May 1975; although, in any event, Svoboda was in no condition to have taken this step himself. Husák’s efforts to become President kept running up against the question of the accumulation of offi ces and also the Czech-Slovak national factor, even though, thanks to centrist Czechoslovak policy and support from Moscow, he succeeded in achieving a ‘peculiar unity’ over this question in the CPCz leadership, so that on 29 May 1975 he became the fi rst, and also the last, Czechoslovak President who was a Slovak. In Czech eyes, however, he remained a Slovak who had, after August 1968, considerably participated in the unfortunate re-imposition of hard-line Communism known as ‘normalization’, whereas for the Slovak nation he increasingly became a turncoat, a ‘Prague Slovak’.
JEMELKA, Martin: Being a Modern Christian and Worker in the Czechoslovak National State (1918-1938)
Jemelka, Martin: Being a Modern Christian and Worker in the Czechoslovak National State (1918-1938). Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino. Vol. 57, Nro. 3 (2017), pp. 97-113., 2017
The declaration of the new Czechoslovak national state in October 1918 brought revolutionary changes not only to the political, social, economic and cultural scene, but also to the religious life of the country. The new Czechoslovak national church created thirteen months later combined national orientation, the reformed clerical movement, theological modernism, the Hussite and reformation tradition and protest against the Catholic Church, definitively discredited in World War I. The newly established Czechoslovak Church received support from various authorities and was seen as the proper option for the good Czechoslovak citizen, primarily the worker. At the same time, it produced a violent conversion movement (1921, 1930) and many local conflicts (1920s). The paper will focus on the workers’ religious and national identification and changes in today’s Ostrava region – an industrial region (the centre of Czechoslovak heavy industry) situated on the ethnic borderline and in the melting pot of many nationalities (Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Germans and Jews). It will analyse the interactions between class and the religious and national identification of workers. It will try to clarify the process and the motivation to convert between different churches. Special attention will be given to conversions among the working class population in the 1920s and 1930s. This analysis will be based on conversion protocols, census documents from 1921 and 1930 and ecclesiastical files of the Roman Catholic and Czechoslovak church.