Still awaiting the second spring:

...This event, along with the Charter for Believers and the January petition, are evidence that the situation of the church in Czechoslovakia can no longer remain ' 'normal.'' In fact, it is no longer normal...

...In 1950, 200 monasteries were raided and abolished...

...It reflects and articulates' issues, more fundamental than the obvious political-organizational struggle between the state and the Vatican, though these are indeed important...

...The New York Times recently reported that the Prague government will propose the nomination of Pacem in Terris member Frantisek Vymetal as archbishop of Olomouc, in exchange for the episcopal nomination of two priests loyal to the Vatican...

...It was an attempt by the then president Antonin Novotny to liquidate the church...

...On the occasion of the ad limina visit of the Czechoslovak episcopacy, attended only by the eighty-eight-year-old Cardinal Tomasek, the pope asked, "Where are the others...

...The government is feeling pressure not only from groups like Charter for Believers and Lidowe Nowiny (People's News), an independent newspaper that has just begun to publish, but from Mikhail Gorbachev himself...

...Only five years ago they were with you...

...a priest, Father Javorsky, sentenced in April 1987 to eight months in prison for celebrating Mass in a private home...

...On March 5, 1988 in Prague-on the eve of a Catholic pilgrimage aimed at pressing for religious freedom-thirteen people were arrested, including human rights activist Stanislav Devaty and playwright Vaclav Havel...

...The clandestine church is that "refuge," that "metaphysical aspect - seeing God in one's fellow" as noted by Dr...

...Cyril and Methodius arrived as missionaries in the ninth century...

...The Czechoslovak government also refused GEOFFREY GNEUHS, a former associate editor of the Catholic Worker, 15 a writer and painter who has frequently visited Czechoslovakia...

...Methodius in the spring of 1985, nearly 150,000 pilgrims came to the villageof Velehrad to honor this saint, the missionary to the Slavs...

...Justice requires a fair review of his teachings...

...In the same letter the bishop cited numerous other abuses: young people investigated by the police for reading Scripture and singing hymns while on outings and trips to the country...

...By 1970 new repressive measures were being enacted in the religious sphere: convents were forbidden to take novices...

...they are systematic," All this in a nation whose law states, "It is the task of the state...

...In the past decade, three of the spokespersons of Charter 77-the human,rights group begun in 1977 and inspired in part by the Helsinki Accords of 1975-have been Catholics: Vaclav Benda, serving in 1979 and 1984, a philosopher and mathematician...

...Today in Bratislava, a city of 400,000 and Czechoslovakia's second largest city, there are only twenty priests-this in a country where even by government statistics nearly 70 percent of the population is Catholic...

...Even today the dates and times for such functions must be cleared with state authorities...

...C hnstianity has been an integral and historic part of the life of the lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, which comprise modern-day Czechoslovakia...

...Seminaries were closed...

...At the time Hus was tried, the church had three popes fighting over power and influence...

...Yet there are no signs that Jakes and the entrenched Czechoslovak bureaucracy hold such beliefs today...

...These malpractices against religious freedom," wrote Bishop Korec, "are too frequent...

...The three other bishops were unable to attend...

...STILL AWAITING THE SECOND SPRING GEOFFREY GNEUHS CZECHOSLOVAKIA'S CLANDESTINE CHURCH Since January of this year, over 300,000 citizens of Czechoslovakia have signed a document petitioning their government for the separation . of church and state and for full and complete religious freedom...

...and Radim Palous, serving in 1982, a philosopher...

...But over the centuries freedom and independence for these people have been elusive: German domination, then Austrian incorporation, two decades of freedom after World War I, only to be followed by Nazi invasion and war, culminating in the chaos after World War II and the seizure of power by the Communists and the elimination of democratic leaders-such as Jan Masaryk-and of all vestiges of democracy itself...

...The situation, declared the pope, is "without parallel" in countries traditionally Christian...

...Cardinal Tomasek commented recently that the religious revival is observable particularly among the young...

...During his lifetime, Hus was considered a national hero in Bohemia because of his efforts to rid his country of German domination...

...Since 1948, when the Communists took full control of the government, it has been impossible to publish books of a theological nature...

...The government, nevertheless, has insisted that any new episcopal appointments be made from those priests who are members of Pacem in Terris...

...and hospital chaplains were even prohibited from distributing Communion to the.sick and dying...

...Twenty years ago Dubcek and his followers wanted reforms and liberalization because they believed these were necessary for revitalizing the nation...

...and a layman prosecuted for giving catechetical instruction to his relatives...

...Meanwhile, the government has actively cultivated a group called Pacem in Terris, made up of priests friendly to the regime, as a way to drive a wedge between Czecho- Slovak Catholics and the Vatican...

...Last October Pope John Paul II took notice of the gravity of the repression of the church in Czechoslovakia-one of the most tightly controlled countries in the Eastern bloc...

...Another round of talks with the Vatican is scheduled for this month...

...The Greek Uniate church was abolished...

...Maly was beaten and imprisoned and lost permission from the state to function as a priest...

...seminary enrollment was severely curtailed...

...It came to a sudden end with the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in August 1968 and the ascension of Gustav Husak as Communist party head the following year...

...Prague,'with its Charles University, founded in the fourteenth century, was one of the leading cities of Europe and remains today a baroque jewel nestled among hills along the river Vltava...

...It also made a plea to Catholics throughout the world to pressure Czechoslovak diplomats and embassies onbehalf of religious freedom...

...religious houses and programs were shut down...

...Ironically, yet not so surprisingly, as the government encouraged Pacem in Terris as "official" and "loyal" Catholics, Catholicism has begun to flourish in a bold and dramatic way-as the "clandestine church...

...The current Communist party secretary, Milos Jakes, is a protege of Gustav Husak and a member of the group which replaced the Dubcek reformers twenty years ago...

...This in a country which, according to Kadlecova, "bears all the familiar signatures of decay, skepsis, hopelessness, and apathy"- a system which forces people to pretend that they believe the pronouncements of the state-knowing they obviously contradict daily experience and reason-and to voice opinions on issues from which they have been barred all access to information...

...The "clandestine church" publishes four journals in samizdat: Resurrection, Theological Texts, Information on the Church, and Religion and the Contemporary World...

...According to the Helsinki Watch Committee, it was the' 'most dramatic demonstration of religious activity and its growth" in the last decade, despite the fact that there was no publicity and that invited guests, including the pope and other religious leaders from throughout the world, were denied travel permits...

...This the Vatican adamantly refuses to do...

...The Soviet leader is attempting major economic reforms in the Soviet Union, but he realizes that the economic structure of the entire Eastern bloc must undergo an overhaul if his own domestic policies are to be realized...

...Palous, an elderly man, was fired from his job at Charles University and lectures now at unofficial seminars...

...to assure that the church and religious life develop in harmony with the Constitution and with the principles of the people's democratic state order, so as to safeguard for each and everyone the right to freedom of creed based on the principles of religious tolerance and equal rights...

...Today a more insidious domination exists...

...More priests than ever before are taking risks to exercise their sacramental ministry for the underground.church without seeking state permission...

...Thousands of priests, monks, nuns, and bishops were imprisoned or sent to state farms...

...Benda spent four years in prison and lost his job...

...Novotny was deposed as party leader in early 1968, and succeeded by the reformer Alexander Dubcek...

...From time to time throughout the Middle Ages this rich region played a significant role in international affairs...

...Erika Kadlecova, a Marxist sociologist and former commissioner for religious affairs under Dubcek, herself a signer of Charter 77, has recently written in samizdat that the "interest in religion and the church seems more evident in the cities, particularly in Prague, than in the country, among intellectuals and among the young people.'' In an essay studying religious phenomena today in her country, she writes, "Christians sacrifice career, status, comfort, and benefits...

...Silvester Krcmery, a layman, both of whom were papal appointees to the October Synod of Bishops...

...travel permits for Monsignor Jan Hirka, apostolic administrator of Presov, and Dr...

...The Czechoslovak leadership is ambivalent and wary...

...On the anniversary of the death of St...

...But that "aggiornamento" was short-lived...

...Both the pope and Cardinal Tomasek have repeatedly condemned the goals of Pacem in Terris and forbidden Catholics to participate...

...So far, the Vatican has refused...

...In October 1949 the State Office for Church Affairs was established...

...For Pope John Paul to acknowledge the significance John Hus has in the national and spiritual yearnings of the people of Czechoslovakia would be a gesture of profound ecumenical import both within Czechoslovakia and abroad...

...The mutual aid and support and the friendly refuge afforded-^ the only one that has replaced relations in our atomized socier ty-are greatly enhanced in church communities, by their metaphysical aspect-seeing God in one's fellow...

...henceforward all priests needed specific permission to function: to say Mass, hear confessions, lead prayer services, funerals, weddings, etc...

...A new era in history has begun...

...Vaclav Maly, serving in 1981, a priest...

...Major reforms initiated from above are not likely at this point...

...Kadlecova...

...Indeed, they hold power precisely for having suppressed such impulses...

...Such efforts have not led to the results the Communist regime had hoped for...

...In that year the Communists shut down thirty Catholic journals, all Catholic publishing houses, and closed the Catholic schools...

...The extraordinary number of signatories is yet another expression of the yearnings of the Czechoslovak people for reforms in their society twenty years after "Prague Spring," that time of liberalization and hope which ended abruptly and brutally with the invasion of Soviet troops (actually, as any Czechoslovak will tell you, most of the troops were already there, and remain so today...

...Even if- and at this point, it is unlikely-the Communist authorities were to relinquish their say in the appointment of bishops, the clandestine church will remain and thrive...

...The Charter for Believers and die subsequent 300,000 signatories of the later, expanded toan-ifesto attest to the renewed vitality and vigor of Catholicism in Czechoslovakia...

...Under Dubcek, there was a genuine attempt at restructuring the system in general and ending religious persecution in particular...

...another priest, eighty years old, convicted and imprisoned for hearing confessions in a church without having first obtained permission from the Communist authorities...

...He observed that the' 'two empty seats for our delegates kept reminding the participants in the synod'' of the deplorable conditions in Czechoslovakia, and noted that that' 'embarrassing deed [the refusal to grant visas] has entered history...

...In November, one of the bishops, Jan Korec, protested this blatant instance of persecution in a letter to the Communist daily, Rude Pravo...

...It would be an acknowledgment on the part of the church that perhaps the work of the Spirit in the church in the fifteenth century can only now be seen and understood...

...It would be a gesture of love and admiration for the enduring faith of the people of Czechoslovakia who have had a long and harsh winter and who hope that there will be another "spring" in Prague.l be another "spring" in Prague...

...Moreover, the people themselves have seen through the sinister motives of the state...

...There is something that the Vatican could do, however, which, while not affecting its official negotiations with the government concerning the empty episcopal sees, would be a historic gesture which would only nourish and honor the clandestine church and the people of Czechoslovakia as a whole...

...Expanding on the original Charter for Believers, the January petition, supported by the aged Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, demands that there be no state interference in the exercise of one's religion, that the state restore church property, that the state permit new churches to be built, and that pilgrims be allowed to travel to shrines outside of Czechoslovakia...

...Writing in the independent Polish Catholic journal, Tygodnik Powszechny, in February 1986, Stefan Swiezawski suggested that Pope John Paul II clear' 'that great, martyred figure of the accusations that unjustly encumber him...

...Can economic reforms be made without encouraging impulses for freedom in religious and cultural affairs...

...The petition of January, a thirty-one point document, follows upon the issuance last September of the Charter for Believers, a sixteen-point manifesto which called for such openings in Czechoslovak society as religious liberty, release of imprisoned priests, the right of the Vatican to appoint bishops (presently, only three out of thirteen dioceses have full, active bishops), and for the legalization of religious orders...

...The Vatican should reopen and review the trial, condemnation, and execution of John Hus, the priest from Bohemia who was convicted of heresy under dubious procedures at the Council of Constance in 1414 and was burned at the stake reciting the Creed...

...Six others were detained briefly...

...For the time being, the Czechoslovak government will act cautiously...