Pope Benedict XVI travelled to Prague, Czech Republic this week to try to revitalize (drum up business) for the Church which lost most of its vast influence under the communist regime. After years of communist rule, the Czech Republic remains a largely secular society. In fact, many Czechs thought his trip irrelevant while some were downright hostile.Why the hostility? Well, it seems that since the fall of communism in the Czech Republic, the Vatican has had an ongoing battle to reclaim St Vitus Cathedral. I had the rare honor to stand within the walls of this cathedral back in the 1970s and I hope to do it again in the spring.
St Vitus is more than just a large elaborate piece of architecture; it is a national treasure. Surrounded by Prague Castle, St Vitus is the final resting place for many Bohemian kings and Czech patron saints, including St Wenceslaus. Kings and queens were coroneted there and the cathedral is now home to the crown jewels.
Many Czechs believe the Vatican is more interested in property than people’s souls and I tend to agree when it comes to the acquisition of St Vitus. The rich history of the Czech people lives and breathes within the walls of the cathedral and the castle and should be entrusted to no one BUT the Czech people.
Rockync, drumming up business is just about right. Czechs are likely the most atheist people in Eastern Europe -- all those souls to save (read: bodies to exploit = monies to earn) are something the Vatican would not like to pass up. From what I hear, however, the Pope's visit is not as welcome as he would like it to be. Czechs are practical people, with a healthy skepticism toward religion (unlike their super-Catholic neighbors in Poland -- and I should know :).
ReplyDeleteIf John Paul II could not ignite religious enthusiasm in Czechs (and he couldn't, despite his earnest efforts), this Pope, who is German (yep, it still matters) and much less charismatic than JPII, won't either.
BTW, I too was in the St. Vitus Cathedral, in 2006. It is a beautiful church. And a wonderful city.
I've been there too, a couple of times. The cathedral is a vital and major part of Prague Castle, and has, as you point out, major historic significance for the Czech nation. It belongs, and should belong to the Czech people.
ReplyDeleteAnd may I add that, even if there is a case to be made for the church, after the Czech people's experience in World War II, this former member of the Hitler Jugund has no personal right to make it.
Given the history of this pope as a Nazi youth and the hatred of the Czechs for the Nazis, not only for their occupation of Prague but for their use of Terezin as a concentration camp and their annihilation of Lidice,he probably should have stayed home.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on going back in May and making the rounds. I'd like to go for at least a month because I still have a lot of family there but I think I'm only going to manage two weeks, maybe a little more. But it will be wonderful to be there without Russian soldiers.
Rocky, your post gives me a chance to remember my great-grandfather, who spent his last years in Prague.
ReplyDeleteHe was a scholar, philosopher, and existential theologian who held various academic positions in central Europe. In the early 1900s, he came to the United States and spent a sabbatical year in Philadelphia where my grandmother was born.
My great-grandfather returned to Europe and took an academic position in Budapest, where my grandmother was raised. In legal terms, my grandmother was already an American citizen but returned to USA as most immigrants do … she learned English from scratch and retained a pronounced middle European accent throughout her life. A younger half-sister remained behind in Budapest.
It is believed my great-grandfather moved to Prague sometimes in the 1920s and remained there until the Nazi invasion of 1939, which culminated in the detention of all Sudetenland Jews at the Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp.
Not much was known about the fate of my great-grandfather until the capture and subsequent prosecution of Adolf Eichmann, 1960-1962, when my great-grandfather’s name was mentioned in court testimony.
Due to overcrowding, tens of thousands of Jews at Theresienstadt were transported by boxcar to Auschwitz. My grandfather was apparently one of those deportees. According to the testimony, my great-grandfather organized a protest on the train, and Eichmann ordered his execution by firing squad.
His name is Mermelstein.
What a tragedy, 8pus! That such a man could be so callously eliminated from this world. He had a lot of courage to stand up to the evil monsters even though he must have known it was futile. At least he didn't have to suffer the prolonged torture and degradation of Auschwitz.
ReplyDeleteMr. Mermelstein of blessed memory, long years to his descendants.
The Czechs never collaborated with the Nazis and, of course,committed and were punished for the assassination of Heydrich with the mass murders and total destruction of Lidice.
For all of those brave souls, we remember ~
Rocky, I have always felt a moral responsibility to remember our ancestors … especially those innocent victims of war. For readers unfamiliar with the massacre at Lidice, here is a link that tells the story. And here is a picture of the monument that memorializes the Children of Lidice.
ReplyDeleteOne final vignette: When “Kristallnacht” started in Prague after the invasion of 1939, my great-grandfather managed to send one more letter that became legend in my family. He described sleeping during the day and staying up all night wearing his finest raiment because he did not want to give the nazis the satisfaction of dragging an old man out of bed in the middle of the night ... a small but symbolic act of defiance worthy of remembrance.
So you mean, you're saying the Pope's visit to the Czech Republic might have had ulterior motives? The Catholic Hierarchy isn't entirely loving and altruistic? Say it isn't so.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope the Catholic Church doesn't gain influence in the Czech Republic. I'm glad the Czechs have thrown off the yoke of Communism, but they don't need a new yoke to take its place.
This post inspires a larger question: is the Catholic Church relevant anymore?
ReplyDeleteTom, I don't think there is any chance of the Catholic Church getting back any kind of foothold in the CZ. Besides the fact that this Pope was a Hitler Youth and that the church is trying to wrest St Vitus from the people, back during the rule of the very Catholic Hapsburgs, protestant Czech nobility suffered greatly culminating with the mass executions at the clock tower in Prague.
ReplyDeleteis the Catholic Church relevant anymore?
ReplyDeleteIt depends where and whom you ask, Matt.
In Poland, where I'm from, 99.9% of folks are staunch Catholics (or pretend to be such). Even asking the question could lead you to a stake (alright, to being ostracized, for sure). Poles credit their faith and the Catholic Church with dismantling the communist rule in Eastern Europe -- and they have a point there, as much as religious faith and the Church's subversive agitation kept the spirit of independence and hope alive among Poles during post-WWII years and helped build the Solidarity movement in the 1980s.
But in the post-communist years, as far I can tell, the Church reverted, by and large, to what it does best: becoming a force of social repression and intolerance (God -- no pun -- I hope that no Pole is reading it!*).
The Church has gotten so powerful now that it directly influences education (e.g., mandatory religion in public schools), politics, and the media. There are more churches than supermarkets in Poland, and Poles may not have enough to eat, but they will give their last monies for a new Jesus monument. A couple of years ago, a Polish politician proposed that Jesus Christ be officially recognized as the king of Poland. (One can't make this stuff up.)
There is a Catholic channel (or maybe more than one these days) on Polish TV, something unheard of during my youth spent in Poland. BTW, that's not comparable to the US religious TV programs, because there are essentially no competing religions in Poland and Catholicism dominates every aspect of daily life. It's suffocating. (IMHO. I can smell sulfur already...)
*You may think I'm paranoid (and you could be right, of course :), but I was once let go from a position of an editorial assistant in a bilingual Polish/English magazine, when, upon being asked what we could do to increase our magazine's appeal to readers, I suggested that we "do less Pope."
I assure you that my termination had nothing to do with any possible grammatical problems in that statement, and everything with the mandatory and unquestioning worship of John Paul II (it was back in the day).
Yes, as you can tell, I am still haunted by All Saints, the Holy Ghost, and the mortal sin. You can take the girl out of Catholicism, but ya can't take Catholicism outta the girl. Sigh.
Catholic girls are fine. The popes scare me.
ReplyDeleteThis will probably get me a fatwa in Warsaw, but...have you SEEN THIS?!!