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Catholic schism dragged into Czech political battleground

  12:38

Battle for political power and moral authority likely behind public spat between traditionalist Catholics, mainstream reformers

„Je bohužel pravděpodobnější, že zanevře na akademický svět podobně, jako na něj zanevřel Klaus a ještě více se opře o svět Jiřinky Bohdalové a hospody v Novém Veselí, svět, který ho vynesl do prezidentského křesla,“ říká na adresu Miloše Zemana. foto: © Martin Sedláček, halik.czČeská pozice

A schism in the Catholic Church that emerged almost half a century ago and continues to this day has entered the sphere of Czech politics, with President Václav Klaus having forged links with Czech Catholic traditionalists who have taken to attacking their more liberal fellow believers in the mainstream media.    

A war of words has broken out between leading Czech figures in the Catholic Church and their supporters, including Klaus’ controversial aide Petr Hájek. The conflict became public in late November when Monsignor Tomáš Halík, a dissident under the communist regime who became a professor of theology and advisor to then president Václav Havel, told the daily Mladá fronta dnes that Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka is “too close” to Klaus (who has no love lost for Havel).

Just hours later, the server parlamentnilisty.cz published an interview with Hájek, deputy head of office for communications and culture to the Czech president, in which he claimed that he had learnt from “absolutely reliable sources” that Halík’s ordainment by the Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Meisner is “simply a lie.” He also claimed that although a qualified engineer, Halík was not a professor (an honorary title bestowed upon Klaus that the president is found of using).

The Czech Bishops’ Conference released a statement on Dec. 1 along with a document confirming that Halík was in fact ordained in 1978 by Bishop Hugo Aufderbeck in Erfurt, and that Charles University has confirmed that he received his professorship there.

Hájek was quick to respond. “What you call a document is not much of a document. It doesn’t even have a date, so we don’t know when it was written: Maybe it was yesterday evening. No apology was forthcoming, Hájek remains at his post in president’s office and several of Klaus’ allies and protégés joined the attack on Halík. It was issued by the Archbishop of Cologne, who doesn’t have the competence. It doesn’t even have a protocol number,” Hájek claimed, again via parlamentnilisty.cz. (In fact, the exact date of Halík’s ordainment is stated in the document; in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI also granted him the title of Monsignor– Honorary Prelate of His Holiness.)

Halík didn’t respond to the charge, but his faithful supporters rallied to the monsignor’s defense, initiating a petition demanding an apology from Hájek and calling on Klaus to dismiss him if he refused to do so. No apology was forthcoming. Instead, several other allies and protégés of the president joined in the attack on Halík.

“Priests and all religious people should call for people to meet and to understand each other, but Halík opts for animosity and incites conflicts. He’s not a religious man,” former National Gallery director Milan Knížák told parlamentnilisty.cz, adding that Halík has ambitions to become fill Klaus’ shoes as head of state (others say he aims higher in the church, and could become a Cardinal).

Cardinal has enough of D.O.S.T. 

This week, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, Duka’s predecessor as Archbishop of Prague came to the defense of Halík and said those who doubt the authenticity of his priesthood are from the ranks of the “conservative and fundamentalist extremists,” who are the proponents of the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre — the traditionalist who opposed several documents of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Lefebvre was essentially a proponent of Catholic exclusivism and was eventually excommunicated in 1988.  

“Many from this group have gone on to join up with political extremists with fascist tendencies — the [banned Czech] Worker’s Party (DS), [right-wing extremist Czech politician Miroslav] Sládek’s party ... [and Michal] Semín who is now advisor [to President Klaus] at the Castle,” Archbishop Vlk wrote in statement published by parlamentnilisty.cz on Dec 12. “In my personal archive I have some valuable documents: several hundred files about the activities of those people and their whole group. At the time the department of our security services that monitored extremism took an interest in them.”

Accusations of spying

Semín said Holeček was directly responsible for the imprisonment of a group of Catholic believers under the communist regime

Semín, who is chairman of the conservative civic association D.O.S.T. (which stands for Belief, Objectivity, Freedom and Tradition, while the acronym means “Enough” in Czech), responded on Dec. 14, again in parlamentnilisty.cz, alleging that Vlk and Halík are close associates of František Holeček, who collaborated with the StB, the Czechoslovak secret police under the communist regime prior to the regime change in 1989.

“Apparently the StB, excuse me, I meant to say ‘the department of our security service monitoring extremism’ was interested in us. Nevertheless, here mention of the StB is appropriate because I have an idea about who is hidden behind those stacks of supposedly compromising material: František Holeček, who collaborated with the communist State Security (StB) over many years and who was sent by the StB to Rome to study theology in order to act as an informant among the priesthood in emigration after he being anointed,” Semín said in the statement.

Semín claimed that Holeček was directly responsible for the imprisonment of a group of Catholic believers under the communist regime and began a successful religious career after 1989 when he was appointed head of the Husite Commission, which sought the rehabilitation of the Czech reformer and Czech national hero Jan Hus (1369–1415), whose modern-day followers are now the third-largest religious order in the Czech Republic, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church (CČSH)

“He became a close associate of Cardinal Vlk and the Christian Academy founded and led by Professor Tomáš Halík,” Semín said, claiming that according to the StB file on Holeček, which has been accessible to the public since 2006, his codenames were “Čeřich” and “Juvan” — and that he was an atheist who worked for the StB at least up until the end of 1988 and certainly up to the time he was ordained a priest.

Semín also says that, to his surprise, Holeček sent him a number of letters several years ago expressing sympathy for his opposition to liberal reforms in the Catholic Church over the past several decades and the manner in which Cardinal Vlk oversaw the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. At the same time, Semín claimed Holeček had enquired about what publications he was planning, and asked for his opinions on certain Church and on social issues.

Semín says that other Czech Catholic traditionalists received similar letters, which led him to conclude that Holeček was attempting to gather information for Cardinal Vlk and Church leaders who support the liberal reforms of recent decades. “What struck me most of all were not only the factual errors and misinterpretations but the overall diction and vocabulary, which, stylistically, resembled reports written by the communist state security or the editors of Rudé právo,” Semín wrote, referring to the Czechoslovak Communist Party’s daily.

The D.O.S.T. chairman also claims that Cardinal Vlk surely knew about Holeček’s past as an StB collaborator before the files were opened because “reliable doubts about his moral qualities” emerged beforehand.” Semín also called upon him to publish the files on individuals in his possession on the Internet, “If only so we can fully realize with what [Cardinal Vlk] was so intensively occupied during his pastoral service, or pastoral rule to be more precise: spying, obtaining compromising materials on individuals holding different opinions on certain matters, demonizing them within the Church, and then slandering them in the media,” Semín wrote.

Out of love

‘Because of my love for him I wish that he doesn’t leave this world with hatred towards anyone including his ideological opponents.’Somewhat surprisingly, Semín concluded his statement by requesting a personal meeting with Archbishop Vlk in order to reconcile their differences. “Because of my love for him, I wish that he doesn’t leave this world with hatred towards anyone, including his ideological opponents,” Semín concluded.

The same day Cardinal Vlk responded by saying that he would not react to the “style, tone, invectives and crudeness of the article,” and did not comment about his association with Holeček. He did, however, provide an explanation about the aforementioned documents on Czech Catholics of the traditionalist persuasion.

Vlk said he had obtained copies of security service and other materials on certain Church figures and believers mostly from open sources on the Internet and Catholic publications such as Christnet, Karolik Revue.cz, Altermedia, Kartákův Kontras, and the pro-Lefebvre forum Traditione and magazine Te Deum. He added that compiling such an archive was “a part of his responsibility,” that there was nothing secret in it, and that he saw no reason to publish the materials.

He also cautiously welcomed Semín’s request for a reconciliatory meeting but said he wished that the D.O.S.T. chairman realized that they have very different positions in the Church, and different responsibilities to the differing ideological tendencies to which they adhere. “There is no democracy in academic matters within the Church,” the Cardinal pointed out.       

What’s at stake, for church and state

Czech Position has learnt from a well informed source that Pope Benedict XVI is considering ordaining two Czechs as cardinals next year:The fact that this battle of words has taken place in the mainstream media as opposed to behind closed doors or within theological circles suggests something pretty major is at stake. It’s also noteworthy that parlamentnilisty.cz has provided considerable space for the spat: the server is operated by Our Media, the beneficial owners of which are concealed behind bearer stock. Nevertheless, the same company also operates the right-wing web publications eurabia.cz and euportal.cz, whose content could be described as neo-nationalist and xenophobic.

Meanwhile, Czech Position has learnt from a well-informed source that Pope Benedict XVI is considering ordaining two Czechs as cardinals next year: “Several people close to the Catholic Church and the Pope want one of the new Czech cardinals to be a figure who through his life and work has made a considerable contribution to modern theology and who would continue the legacy of Cardinal Tomáš Špidlík,” the source said, adding that it is extremely likely to be made a Cardinal by the Pope. Halík has cast doubt on this information.

Nevertheless, this publication has learnt from another source closely associated with Halík that the professor of theology does indeed harbor ambitions of becoming Czech President. In this light, he would certainly be perceived as a threat to Klaus and his allies. The Czech President’s second and final presidential term ends in March 2013, and he has made it clear that he does not intend to retire from private life.

There is increasingly speculation that Klaus may establish a new populist, anti-EU, neo-nationalist party by uniting members of the Sovereignty party and D.O.S.T. In this case, “Cardinal Halík” would be a formidable opponent as moral authority, and as president of the Czech Republic a direct political opponent.

See related article: Vatican seen making popular Czech priest Tomáš Halík cardinal

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