Ladislav Hlad

Ladislav Hlad (born February 3, 1908 in Pilsen , Bohemia , † December 16, 1979 in Moravec ) was an "illegal" auxiliary bishop in Prague at the time of the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia .

Life

Ladislav Albert Hlad, also Ladislao Hlad, came from a poor family, his father died early. He found benefactors who supported him, including a. Josef Limpouch during his studies from 1926 to 1930 at the Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague , and Josef Beran , who later became Archbishop of Prague and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church . On July 6, 1930, Archbishop František Kordač donated him to priesthood in Prague . After his time in the parish ministry, he was called to the archbishopric ordinariate in 1946 , he became episcopal vicar and archbishop notary. In November 1949 he became Vicar General of Archbishop Josef Beran.

On February 9, 1950, Pope Pius XII appointed him . as auxiliary bishop in Prague and at the same time titular bishop of Cediae . When the Apostolic Nunciature informed the Czech authorities of the papal letter, they were informed that any episcopal ordination in Czechoslovakia was forbidden and the wearing of episcopal insignia was prohibited. The episcopal ordination took place in secret on March 26, 1950 in a hidden place. The consecration was carried out by Štěpán Trochta , the bishop of Leitmeritz , and co-consecrator was Kajetán Matoušek , who had also been consecrated underground a year earlier .

He went to Ceske Budejovice to escape imminent arrest . There he was tracked down in July 1950, arrested and taken to the internment camp for priests in the former Želiv monastery . On September 30 of the same year, a court sentenced him to three years' imprisonment and payment of 20,000 kroner . He was conditionally released on December 22, 1951. A few days later, on January 1, 1952, he secretly ordained seven theologians to priests. On August 15, 1955, he rode a motorcycle to Prague with a colleague who also worked as an unskilled worker . There was a car accident there, and a truck that had been chasing them for a while ran over them. The colleague was dead immediately, Bishop Hlad lost a leg. After hospitalization and rehab , he was given a pastor's post , but was secretly on the road as a bishop. His secret ordination on July 1, 1958, was betrayed and he was arrested on August 10. Interrogated and tortured in the Ruzyně detention center near Prague Airport, he was sentenced to nine years in prison on January 26, 1960 for sedition . At the end of 1962, he and Bishop Ján Vojtaššák and Bishop Stanislav Zela , who were also in the prison there, were given solitary confinement . In 1963 he was amnestied and released by the Czechoslovak President Antonín Novotný . Since 1966, the ominous and almost paralyzed man lived in a nursing home for older priests, first in Senohraby and then in Moravec.

Bishop Ladislav Hlad died on December 16, 1979 in Moravec. He was buried in the family vault in the St. Wenceslas cemetery in Pilsen. In 1990 he was rehabilitated.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Revue des Ordinations Épiscopales, Issue 1950, Number 15

personal data
SURNAME	Hlad, Ladislav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hlad, Ladislav Albert; Hlad, Ladislao
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Czechoslovak clergyman, auxiliary bishop in Prague
DATE OF BIRTH	February 3, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pilsen , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH	December 16, 1979
Place of death	Moravec , Czechoslovakia

[1] Revue des Ordinations Épiscopales, Issue 1950, Number 15