Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic

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The Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic is the largest denomination in the country. Around 10% of the Czech population are members of the Catholic Church. It is divided into two church provinces , which essentially correspond to the historical countries of Bohemia and Moravia / Silesia . These ecclesiastical provinces comprise a total of eight dioceses .

structure

The Czech dioceses
  • Church Province of Bohemia
  • Church province of Moravia
    • Latin Church
    Greek Catholic Church

    The Catholic military chaplaincy is assigned to a military vicariate .

    The submerged diocese of Litomysl is only given as a titular seat today , the current titular bishop of Litomysl is the Brno auxiliary bishop Pavel Konzbul .

    Bishops' Conference and Nunciature

    Archbishop Jan Graubner, chairman of the Czech Bishops' Conference

    The Czech Bishops' Conference consists of the 8 Roman Catholic diocesan bishops (including two archbishops), the 5 auxiliary bishops, and three emeritus (consecrated) bishops. The three Greek Catholic bishops are also members. Its headquarters are in Prague. The current chairman is the Archbishop of Olomouc Jan Graubner .

    In addition to the chairmanship of the Bishops' Conference, there is a permanent council, 7 episcopal commissions for the exercise of the faith , catechesis , priests , Catholic education and economic affairs; Public relations and religious life . In addition, 16 working groups are available to the Bishops' Conference for various topics.

    In addition to his diocesan agendas, each bishop is assigned to national tasks in the areas of education, caritas and social affairs, youth, family, mission , media, and pastoral care abroad . The Bishops' Conference maintains the Pontifical Collegium Nepomucenum , founded in 1844 as the Collegium Bohemicum , the Czech seminary in Rome .

    The Holy See has had an Apostolic Nunciature in Prague for diplomatic and ecclesiastical matters since 1920 . The American Archbishop Charles Daniel Balvo has been the Apostolic Nuncio since September 21, 2018 . Predecessors were Archbishop Erwin Josef Ender from 2001 , Diego Causero from 2004 and Giuseppe Leanza from 2011 .

    Catholics in the Czech Republic

    Age pyramid of the Catholics in the Czech Republic

    According to the Czech Statistical Office, 1.08 million citizens, i.e. 10.4% of all Czechs, stated that they belonged to the Roman Catholic Church in the 2011 census.

    In comparison, the Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brothers has around 52,000 members (= 0.5% of the population) and the Czechoslovak Hussite Church around 39,000 members (= 0.4% of the population). In the 2011 census, 34% of the population described themselves as non-denominational, 44% gave no information.

    According to the church yearbook Annuario Pontificio from 2013, the number of Catholics in the country is much higher. The statistics, which are based on censuses of the dioceses, give a total of 3,129,500 Catholics, which corresponds to a share of 30.3% of the population.

    Diocese Catholic number Total population Catholic share Number of priests Catholics per priest
    Archdiocese of Prague (Praha) 372,900 2,061,000 18.1% 331 1,127
    Bishopric Budweis (České Budějovice) 290,400 758,000 38.3% 136 3.135
    Diocese of Königgrätz (Hradec Králové) 452.200 1,266,000 35.7% 210 2.153
    Litoměřice diocese 162,400 1,341,000 12.1% 117 1,388
    Diocese of Pilsen (Plzeň) 144,700 834,000 17.4% 98 1,477
    Archdiocese of Olomouc (Olomouc) 743,400 1,403,000 53% 365 2,037
    Diocese of Brno (Brno) 535,500 1,360,000 39.4% 358 1,496
    Diocese of Ostrau-Troppau (Ostrava-Opava) 428,000 1,310,000 32.7% 132 1,845
    total 3,129,500 10,333,000 30.3% 1,747 1,791

    history

    The Saint Vitus Cathedral and the Cathedral Chapter (left) in Prague

    After the Christianization of Bohemia in the 10th century , the Archdiocese of Prague was established, which was then subordinate to the Metropolitan of Mainz . Second Archbishop of Prague became one of the later regional saints Adalbert of Prague ( svatý Vojtěch z Prahy ).

    In the year 1344 the diocese Litomysl was founded, but it perished in 1474 after the Hussite movement and the territory was again subordinated to Prague.

    The Catholic Church was shaped by Archbishop Ernst Adalbert von Harrach in the age of the Thirty Years War .

    At the end of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII admonished . in an encyclical " Quae ad nos " the Catholic Church in Bohemia and Moravia.

    Oppressed church under communist rule

    After the overthrow of bourgeois democracy in February 1948 and the takeover of Czechoslovakia by the Communists, the new regime steered a repressive course against the Catholic Church. The church was expropriated, Catholic publications were banned, publishing houses were confiscated, and Catholic schools were closed. The Vatican was declared an enemy and the Nuncio was expelled from Prague. The communist rulers intended to use the so-called Catholic Action to transform the Catholic Church into a national church that was separated from Rome.

    Due to the escalation of the situation and the uncertainty of the future in the country, the Holy See granted the bishops in Czechoslovakia secret powers. Among other things, there were episcopal ordinations that the Czech bishops carried out in secret ( Kajetán Matoušek , František Tomášek , Ladislav Hlad , Karel Otčenášek ). By transferring competencies to the secret bishops and deans , preparations were made for an underground church . The appointments and ordinations were never recognized by the Czechoslovak state.

    In October 1949 the regime set up a state church office with which the entire church life should be monitored and controlled. In 1950 all religious were sent to concentration monasteries or re-education camps, accused of espionage and activities for the Vatican. Priests and bishops were interned, imprisoned and prevented from performing their offices. After a long period of pre-trial detention, clergymen were sentenced to long prison terms, some in show trials (Otčenášek). There was a state internment camp for priests in the former Želiv monastery , whose inmates had to do forced labor in a quarry. The Prague Cardinal Josef Beran was not allowed to return to Prague from a trip to Rome in 1965. Even after the Prague Spring, pastoral care was always carried out under the supervision of the security services. Only a few were ordained priests. On the other hand, the state managed to use its own candidates ( Josef Vrana ).

    The appointment of bishops in 1988 ( Antonín Liška , Jan Lebeda , Ján Sokol ) was the first after many years that could be negotiated between state and church. This was seen as a compromise between what the church needed and what the communist regime could allow. In August and September 1989 František Vaňák , Josef Koukl and František Tondra were ordained bishops in Czechoslovakia.

    On November 12, 1989, Pope John Paul II canonized Blessed Agnes of Bohemia . The already weakened regime allowed thousands of pilgrims to leave for Rome on this occasion. The event is considered to be the forerunner of the Velvet Revolution , which ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia within a few weeks.

    After 1993

    Procession in Kyjov

    After the founding of the Czech Republic in 1993, the church landscape in the Czech Republic was reorganized by means of a concordat . The two dioceses of Pilsen and Troppau-Ostrava were re-established by being separated from other dioceses.

    To date, no treaty has been concluded between the Czech Republic and the Vatican that regulates the legal status of the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. This is to be negotiated again in 2009. From September 26th to 28th, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI. A visit to the Czech Republic.

    In 2012 the House of Representatives passed a law on the restitution of church property. The Nečas government was able to reach an agreement after 20 years of unclear ownership. The state is gradually withdrawing from financing the churches. In 2013, the return of real estate and property worth 3 billion euros to the religious communities began, with the largest part going to the Catholic Church. The state pays 59 billion crowns (2.3 billion euros) over a period of 30 years for property that can no longer be restituted . The Babiš government's plan to tax the payments was overturned by the Constitutional Court in 2019 .

    Pilgrimages

    Velehrad

    The largest Marian pilgrimage site in the Czech Republic is the Svatá Hora monastery near Příbram . Not only Czech believers make a pilgrimage to this, but since the fall of the Iron Curtain also German and Austrian believers. Other important pilgrimage sites are the Velehrad Monastery , the Hostýn , Stará Boleslav , the Svatý Kopeček in Olomouc and the pilgrimage site Maria Hilf near Zlaté Hory.

    See also

    literature

    • Ferdinand Seibt (Ed.): Bohemia sacra. Christianity in Bohemia 973 - 1973. 2 vols. Düsseldorf 1974 ISBN 3-590-30247-X
    • Jaroslav Kadlec: Přehled českých církevních dějin. Prague 1991.
    • Milan M. Buben: Encyklopedie řádů, kongregací a řeholních společností katolické církve v českých zemích. 5 vols. Praha 2002-2006. ISBN 80-7277084-5
    • Kurt Augustinus Huber: Catholic Church and Culture in Bohemia. Selected treatises, ed. by Joachim Bahlcke . Münster 2005. ISBN 3-8258-6687-4
    • Pavel Marek: Církevní krize na počátku první Československé republiky (1918–1924). (= Edice Pontes pragenses. 36). Brno 2005. ISBN 80-8626357-6
    • Ondřej Liška: Every time is God's time. The Underground Church in Czechoslovakia. 1948-1989. Leipzig 2003. ISBN 3-7462-1584-6
    • Oto Mádr: How the Church Doesn't Die. Testimony from times of distress in the Czech Church. Leipzig 1993. ISBN 3-7462-1086-0

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b Český statistický úřad - ČSÚ (Czech Statistical Office): Sčítání lidu, domů a bytů (results of the 2011 census) Tab. 604: Obyvatelstvo podle náboženské víry (population by religious community) (PDF; 251 kB), accessed on 4. May 2013.
    2. ^ Segreteria di Stato, Libreria Editrice Vaticana (ed.): Annuario Pontificio 2013 , Rome 2013.
    3. ↑ Agnes of Bohemia. Symbol of the turn of 1989 Radio Praha International on November 12, 2019
    4. ↑ Cardinal Vlk: Pope Benedict wants to visit the Czech Republic in September 2009
    5. ↑ Members of Parliament approve church restitution at Radio Praha International on July 16, 2012
    6. ↑ Taxation of church restitutions overturned Radio Praha International on October 16, 2019

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