Czechs Mourn Bischop, Symbol of anti-Communist Resistance

By BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest

PRAGUE/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)– Catholic Christians have been mourning Archbishop Karel Otcenasek, who became a symbol of church resistance against atheist, Communist rule.

Earlier, thousands of believers attended the funeral ceremony of Otcenasek in his home city of Hradec Kralove on Friday, June 3, Czech media reported. Archbishop Karel Otcenasek, a former bishop of Hradec Kralove, died last Monday, May 23, week at the age of 91.

One of the top figures of the Czech Roman Catholic Church, Otcenasek was named a bishop in secret in 1950 and spent over 10 years in Communist prisons.

After an amnesty in 1962, he was freed and worked in a dairy plant, only returning to ecclesiastical life in 1965. He became the 23rd bishop of the Hradec Kralove diocese, in eastern Bohemia region, in 1990, a post he held until his retirement eight years later.

“SILENCED CHURCH”

In published remarks, Prague Archbishop and Czech Catholic Primate Dominik Duka called Otcenasek one of the last personalities of the “previously silenced Church”, whose life illustrates the Catholic Church’s long lasting fight against the atheist, Communist regime.

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“A firm witness of the faith has departed, a man to whom loyalty to a pledge and to an ideal was not an empty word. What should be recalled now and taken as an example to follow, is his relation to his nation and homeland,” Duka wrote.

As in other East Block countries, churches often played a key role in supporting the struggle against Communist dictatorship.

The Czech Republic eventually became a free nation following the collapse of Communism in 1989.

“BIG LOSS”

President Vaclav Klaus wrote in a letter of condolences that Otcenasek’s death is a big loss not only for the Catholic Church but for the whole country, Czech News Agency CTK reported.

“The archbishop ranked among the distinguished figures of public life. His voice of a priest and a citizen could always be heard well,” Klaus wrote.

He said Otcenasek’s life story, civic stands and rich experience were and remain “a big inspiration” to many in what is now a European Union member state.

Opinion polls have suggested that the Czech Republic is one of the most atheistic countries in Europe, but there were no signs of that in Hradec Kralove on Friday, June 3.

During the funeral service several hundreds of people were seen crowding the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in the city’s main square. Those who failed to get in watched the funeral mass on a large screen on the square,Czech media said

The mass, celebrated by Hradec Kralove Bishop Jan Vokal was attended by politicians, cultural figures and church dignitaries.