A schism in the Catholic Church that emerged almost half a century ago and continues to this day has entered the sphere of Czech politics, with President Václav Klaus having forged links with Czech Catholic traditionalists who have taken to attacking their more liberal fellow believers in the mainstream media.
A war of words has broken out between leading Czech figures in the Catholic Church and their supporters, including Klaus’ controversial aide Petr Hájek.
The conflict became public in late November when Monsignor Tomáš Halík, a dissident under the communist regime who became a professor of theology and advisor to then president Václav Havel, told the daily Mladá fronta dnes that Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka is “too close” to Klaus (who has no love lost for Havel).
Just hours later, the server parlamentnilisty.cz published an interview with Hájek, deputy head of office for communications and culture to the Czech president, in which he claimed that he had learnt from “absolutely reliable sources” that Halík’s ordainment by the Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Meisner is “simply a lie.” He also claimed that although a qualified engineer, Halík was not a professor (an honorary title bestowed upon Klaus that the president is found of using).
The Czech Bishops’ Conference released a statement on Dec. 1 along with a document confirming that Halík was in fact ordained in 1978 by Bishop Hugo Aufderbeck in Erfurt, and that Charles University has confirmed that he received his professorship there.
Hájek was quick to respond.
“What you call a document is not much of a document. It doesn’t even have a date, so we don’t know when it was written: Maybe it was yesterday evening. No apology was forthcoming, Hájek remains at his post in president’s office and several of Klaus’ allies and protégés joined the attack on Halík. It was issued by the Archbishop of Cologne, who doesn’t have the competence. It doesn’t even have a protocol number,” Hájek claimed, again via parlamentnilisty.cz.
(In fact, the exact date of Halík’s ordainment is stated in the document; in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI also granted him the title of Monsignor– Honorary Prelate of His Holiness.)
Halík didn’t respond to the charge, but his faithful supporters rallied to the monsignor’s defense, initiating a petition demanding an apology from Hájek and calling on Klaus to dismiss him if he refused to do so. No apology was forthcoming. Instead, several other allies and protégés of the president joined in the attack on Halík.
“Priests and all religious people should call for people to meet and to understand each other, but Halík opts for animosity and incites conflicts. He’s not a religious man,” former National Gallery director Milan Knížák told parlamentnilisty.cz, adding that Halík has ambitions to become fill Klaus’ shoes as head of state (others say he aims higher in the church, and could become a Cardinal).