Karel Otčenášek

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Karel Otčenášek
coat of arms

Karel Otčenášek (born April 13, 1920 in České Meziříčí ; † May 23, 2011 in Hradec Králové ) was a Czech Roman Catholic bishop in the diocese of Königgrätz . In 1998 the Pope gave him the personal title of Archbishop . He was the longest serving bishop in the world church.

Life

Karel Otčenášek was the son of a master wagoner . From 1931 he attended the Archbishop's High School in Prague and in 1939 began studying theology in Königgrätz . Before the war began , he was sent to Rome to study by Bishop Mořic Pícha . There he obtained his theological license at the Pontifical Collegium Nepomucenum of the Pontifical Lateran University and was ordained a priest on March 17, 1945 .

After the war he returned to his homeland and worked as a chaplain in Týnec nad Labem , Horní Roveň near Pardubice and in Žamberk . From October 1949 he was deputy rector of the Königgrätzer seminary , which was dissolved in 1950 by the communist rulers of what was then Czechoslovakia since the February revolution in 1948 . After Bishop Mořic Pícha had been interned in his residence since the beginning of 1950 and was not allowed to exercise his episcopate, he consecrated with the approval of Pope Pius XII. Karel Otčenášek, who was only thirty, on April 30, 1950 in the episcopal house chapel of St. Charles Borromeo as bishop. At the same time, the Pope appointed Karel Otčenášek titular bishop of Chersonesus in Creta and auxiliary bishop in Königgrätz and empowered him, if necessary, to take over the direction of the diocese .

persecution

Since the consecration was carried out in secret and without the consent of the state authorities, Karel Otčenášek was arrested and transferred to an internment camp for priests and religious in the Seelau Monastery in 1951 , where Prague Archbishop František Tomášek was also held. After unsuccessful attempts at re-education , Otčenášek was taken to the Pardubitz pre- trial detention center in 1953 and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for high treason in 1954 in Königgrätz in a show trial , which was preceded by interrogation, solitary confinement, and psychological and physical pressure .

He spent the next few years in the prisons of Königgrätz, Mírov , Leopoldov and others. Even after he was released by way of amnesty in May 1962, he was not allowed to do pastoral work and worked in a dairy in Opočno until 1965 .

After an intervention by Pope Paul VI. From 1965 he was allowed to work as a pastor in Trmice near Ústí nad Labem , but was still under surveillance by the security authorities and was not allowed to leave the place. During the political liberalization under Alexander Dubček he was allowed to work from 1968 to 1973 in his diocese of Königgrätz as pastor of the Königgrätz suburb of Plotiště nad Labem . Although he was rehabilitated during the Prague Spring in 1968 and the judgment of 1954 was overturned as illegal, from 1973 he was again no longer allowed to work in his diocese, as the political reforms were withdrawn as part of the so-called normalization . Otčenášek had to go back to the remote Trmice, where he was again under surveillance by the state security services.

bishop

Only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 was Karel Otčenášek able to take up the office of bishop in Königgrätz in early 1990, for which he had been ordained almost forty years earlier. At the official inauguration on January 27, 1990, President Václav Havel and the Parisian Archbishop Jean-Marie Lustiger took part.

As bishop he made every effort to rebuild church life in his diocese and pastoral care of the communities. He initiated the most necessary renovations of the churches, chapels and parsonages. The bishop's palace was repaired with financial support from the Austrian diocese of St. Pölten . In the former Jesuit College, a center for culture, pastoral care and evangelism has been established and after the patron saint Adalbert named Nové Adalbertinum '. Sponsors from Austria, Germany and the Swiss canton of Thurgau participated in the financing of this measure . The episcopal grammar school, founded in 1992, was named after the Jesuit Bohuslav Balbín, who was born in Königgrätz .

He donated the consecration of bishops to his auxiliary bishop Josef Kajnek (1992) and his successor Dominik Duka (1998) and was involved in the joint consecration of the Olomouc auxiliary bishops Jan Graubner and Josef Hrdlička in April 1990.

Former Bishop

tomb

Karel Otčenášek gave up the post on September 26, 1998 for reasons of age. Until his death he was chairman of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Czech Bishops' Conference . He campaigned for the reparation and compensation of the unjustly persecuted and convicted pastors, religious priests and nuns as well as the political prisoners and for the recording of their painful experiences (book series: Kaminky ).

Honors and titles

In 1998, Pope John Paul II awarded him the personal title of Archbishop for his services . As early as 1995, the Czech Republic awarded him the First Class Order named after Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk . The Charles University awarded him their Gold Medal, the University of Hradec Kralove , the honorary doctorate . The towns of Týnec nad Labem , České Meziříčí, Trmice and Rudoltice made him their honorary citizen. In 2000 Otčenášek was one of the signatories of the founding charter of the Catholic student association KStV Pragensis Prague and is its only honorary member.

Publications

  • Mosaic stones. Small testimonials about the persecution of Christians in the time of the communist totality and about their efforts for the freedom and the well-being of the fatherland. Initiator and patronage: Mons. ThLic. Otčenášek; Translated into German by Wilhelm Sitte. 1st edition, Diocese of Hradec Králové, Hradec Králové 2004. 237 p .; 21 cm. ISBN 80-239-2992-5 (paperback)

Web links

Commons : Karel Otčenášek  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry on Karel Otčenášek on catholic-hierarchy.org , after the North Korean Bishop Francis Hong Yong-ho , who is believed to be missing.
predecessor Office successor
Mořic Pícha Bishop of Königgrätz
1990–1998 		Dominik Duka
personal data
SURNAME Otčenášek, Karel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Otčenášek, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech theologian and Bishop of Königgrätz
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH České Meziříčí
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 2011
Place of death Hradec Králové