From the Underground Church to Freedom by tomáš Halík

From the Underground Church to Freedom by tomáš Halík

Author:tomáš Halík
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00


❚ FOR US 1989 BEGAN WITH Jan Palach Week—mass demonstrations in Prague on the twentieth anniversary of Palach’s death, during which Václav Havel was arrested—and was followed by heightened political tension. None of us suspected how the year would end.

The cardinal became more radical in his relations with the government. In January he wrote an open letter to the government protesting the brutal treatment of demonstrators by the police during Jan Palach Week. Then in April, to mark St. Adalbert’s Day, he issued an appeal to all Catholic believers and wrote a letter to the prime minister. Cardinal Tomášek called on believers to actively defend their rights; he urged the government to change its attitude and start to respect human and civil rights and to engage at last in a dialogue with citizens and the opposition. The cardinal offered himself or his colleagues as mediators in such a dialogue.

At that time I decided to make a public appearance. In May 1989, a pilgrimage was organized to commemorate Clement Hofbauer, the saint connected with the second year of the Decade of Spiritual Renewal, and on this occasion Brno Cathedral was chosen. It was clear to us that such a large gathering must not be simply the expression of the growing confidence and numbers of determined believers, but the church had to offer above all the power of inspiring ideas. After careful reflection, prayer, and consultation with friends, I decided to step out of anonymity in spite of all the risks. Before the main religious service began, as part of the program of spiritual renewal, I spoke for about an hour to the pilgrims from every part of the country who filled the cathedral, focusing on the meaning and objective of the Decade and the imminent canonization of Agnes of Bohemia.

I described Clement Hofbauer as a man who fought for the freedom of the church in the face of bureaucratic harassment from the absolutist state, who strove so that the church should not lose its active connection with the world of the spirit, or with leading thinkers and artists, or with the world of the poor and wronged. I built my entire address around Hofbauer’s words, “preaching a new gospel.” I said:

Many have now concentrated on defending the rights of believers. Suffice it to say that it is necessary to seek a worthy place for the church in this society, so that its hands are free to serve all, and fully develop its witness. And who should work for this, if not the believers themselves, and their pastors? But we must not strive for that alone; it is a means, not the final end. We will soon cross a new threshold. We will enter a new phase in which the main emphasis will be not on our rights but on our responsibility—our shared responsibility for the life of the nation and society. . . . What is the essential expression of maturity, if not the capacity to assume responsibility—not only for ourselves, but also for others, and for the community? .



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