“The academic senate has the final say on issues of the scope of teaching,” the verdict from the Municipal Court said, refusing Fr Jaroslav Brož’s case. The judgment is final and only the Supreme Administrative Court can hear a cassation complaint against it.
The outgoing Rector of Charles University Milena Králíčková welcomed the decision. “I hope this will be a turning point,” she said.
The legal decision opens the way to stabilisation of the faculty, which has been paralysed since February 2025 by internal disputes between supporters of Brož and the academic senate dominated by his critics.
His opponents accused the dean of damaging the faculty’s reputation, managerial failures and misconduct towards critics. His supporters – who include the Grand Chancellor of the Catholic Theological Faculty, Archbishop Jan Graubner of Prague – claim these accusations are not the real basis of the case against him.
“It is impossible to remain silent and overlook injustice,” said Brož, whose brother Bishop Prokop Brož is an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Hradec Králové.
Some Czech reports suggested that Brož’s dismissal, first in February 2025 and then again in the summer following an intense legal battle over its legality, was the result of a dispute between conservatives and liberals in the Church.
Alena Černá, the vice-chairwoman of the academic senate, emphatically rejected this. “It is definitely not an ideological dispute,” she told the Aktualne.cz outlet.
The Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University has long been criticised for poor academic standards and theological dogma. Until late 1990s it admitted only men preparing for the priesthood.
The Czech education ministry as well as the Charles University’s management have repeatedly threatened to remove its accreditation unless key curricular and teaching issues were addressed.
The university currently has three theological faculties – Catholic, Protestant and Hussite – each with very small numbers of students and protracted financial problems.
There are repeated calls to merge these three faculties into one theological faculty, but this is obstructed by the faculties’ ties to their respective Churches.