Pope Benedict XVI waves after leading the vespers at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague September 26, 2009. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Posted on 09/26/2009 3:37:43 PM PDT by Pyro7480
Pope Benedict XVI sought to reach out to the heavily secular people of the Czech Republic on Saturday, decrying the "wounds" left by atheistic communism and urging them to rediscover their Christian roots.
...Benedict said Christianity has an "irreplaceable role" to play in their lives.
The Czech Republic is one of the most secular countries in Europe, with nearly half the country professing to be non-believers....
Vatican organizers are hoping for a crowd of up to 200,000 people for the pope's Sunday Mass in Brno, in the Catholic heartland of the Czech Republic....
The [papal vespers] service was held in St. Vitus Cathedral, the Gothic centerpiece of the castle complex that has come to symbolize the Catholic church's dilemma. Although religious freedom was restored when communism fell, the church is still battling for the return of the cathedral and other property given to the state by the communist regime....
Scores of pilgrims poured into Prague for the nation's first papal visit in a dozen years. But most Czechs seemed to shrug the trip off as irrelevant — and some were openly hostile.
"It's just a waste of money," said Kveta Tomasovicova, 56, who works at Prague's National Library. "At a time of economic crisis, when our salaries are going down, the visit is a useless investment."
...Underscoring the hostility toward the church, a group calling itself Condom Positive planned to distribute condoms bearing a likeness of the pope wearing one on his head and the words: "Papa said no! And you?"
Another group, Condoms for the Pope, said it would inflate prophylactics to condemn Benedict's assertion earlier this year that condoms are not the answer to Africa's severe AIDS problem....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Catholic ping!
Poland was under Communism, just like the Czechs, yet they remain the most religious country in Europe. So I don’t buy Communism alone as an excuse.
Pray for the Pope bump.
Things were much, much worse in Czechoslovakia than in Poland. The communist brutally suppressed the Church, while in Poland they only gave it a hard time. The Church in Poland now considers the Czech Republic to be a missionary territory and are sending over quite a few priests to rebuild the Faith.
I’m glad he’s speaking out. The left (both within and outside of the Church) is trying to stifle him, but he is putting his faith in the Lord and not giving in. Prayers for him.
Interesting. And VERY good news.
EWTN is providing live coverage.
The traditional habits! How beautiful they are!
You are right. It's personal.
Not all of the current Czech Republic is former Hussite territory. Also, you leave out the part where the Hussites also committed destructive acts against local Catholics as well.
I always though those “lace curtain” surplices were a nice look!
In parallel news, the Czech Republic is becoming a major tourism destination, to the point where you can’t visit expecting to see a “few big national sites”, because each city and region boasts many different unique attractions.
Cathedrals and churches, castles and chateaus,”salt cathedrals” and caves, museums and galleries, glass works, monasteries, parks, breweries, etc.
Prague has become a major center for the arts, fine arts through TV and movie productions, with several English language newspapers.
They are overdue for a religious revival as well.
That would not be surprising. While the Czech Republic today is traditionally Catholic just as much as Poland or Hungary, the Soviet-era Czechoslovakia was a Catholic-Orthodox mix (Slovakia being the Orthodox half). In those dual-confession territories the Soviets heavily favored the Orthodox Church as more pliable.
I know someone who was a paratrooper in the Czech army, he had no choice, anyway, he came to America and became a registered republican after he became a citizen. Unfortunately, with the current situation in his country at the time, religion was void, so he never practiced his faith.
God Bless the Pope.
Slovakia is only 1% Orthodox. It is overwhelmingly Catholic.
Religions: Roman Catholic 68.9%, Protestant 10.8%, Greek Catholic 4.1%, other or unspecified 3.2%, none 13% (2001 census)
I visited when it was still Czechloslovakia. It is a beautiful country, especially up in the foothills by the spas, Marianbad and Carlsbad. Prague, not having been bombed to smithereens during the War, has it’s history intact, and its architecture. I loved Prague, with its Charles Bridge (I’d like to go back there now that the bridge and its statues have been cleaned up), and all its history, lots of baroque buildings. Also, had an interesting experience in Prague.
Our Czech guide, had lost his original livelihood (forgot what it was) for not being willing to join the Communist Party and opposing it in his country. He thus was reduced to making his living as a tour guide. when we were out in a secluded wooded area one day, one of our tour group (it was a group that studied the history and arts of various countries of Europe, followed by a trip to them), had the book “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, which used the Czech uprising against the Commies as a backdrop for the novel. The book had been banned in Czechloslovakia by its communist gov’t. She gave our tour guide the book as a gift. He was absolutely delighted, and told us how against the Commie regime he was, and how he couldn’t speak of it other than to the likes of us, Americans, and in the middle of the woods.
One last thing. When I was in Czechloslovakia, as it was still Commie, there were Commie guards with machine guns posted in downtown Prague, near the gov’t building. One of our fellow group members was of Czech heritage. He was also in his late 70’s at the time (in great shape though). They detained us for over 2 hours when entering into the country, because Joe was of Czech ancestry. Finally they let us cross over the border. Must have thought he was a late blooming spy from the U.S.
I will confess that Václav Havel has to go down in history for the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia. I gather that the Slovaks came ready for a bitter brawl to have an independent Slovakia, and when Havel basically said, okay, is there anything we can do to help?, their jaws about hit the floor.
And then, correctly assessing that the Czech Republic had been raped by the Soviet Union, and had little left to build an economy around, he decided that entertainment and art would be the fastest way for them to get back on their feet. It will still be a hundred years before the great forests are restored.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.