The fruits of the Vatican Ostpolitik are bitter indeed. A news story carried recently by the wire services once again points out the failure of the Vatican diplomats to gain any concessions from the communist regimes.
VIENNA (NC) — Czechoslovakia’s communist regime is stepping up its restrictions on priests and nuns, according to well-informed persons.
At least 40 priests have been removed from their parishes and the superior general of the School Sisters of St. Francis has been prevented from returning to Rome to resume her work there, these persons report.
Some have been imprisoned.
Typical of the priests removed from office by the state bureau of worship is Father Emil Sutor, parish priest of Velka Lehota, these sources say. Grounds for his removal,cited in the document of removal,dated April 7, 1974, were that Father Sutor “does not fulfill the requirements for the exercise of pastoral activity”, and that certain documents about Father Sutor requested by the bureau of worship had not been supplied by the apostolic administrator of Trnava, Bishop Julius Gabris.
All 40 priests named in the list of those removed from office or hindered in their work were from Slovakia, the most Catholic part of Czechoslovakia.
Those who have been imprisoned include Father Jozef Gazda of Okolicne, Father Stefan Koprda of the Banska Bystrica diocese. Father Stefan Podolinsky of the Roznave diocese, and Father Emanuel Chyla of the Spis diocese.
Among priests listed as removed or imprisoned were two Jesuits, Fathers Alojz Litva and Rudolf Lednicky, and a Franciscan, Father Frantisek Bohnak.
One indication that these 40 cases do not represent local policy but are part of a nationwide campaign directed from the top was the refusal of Czechoslovak authorities to allow Cardinal Franz Koenig of Vienna to bless the body of the late Bishop Karel Skoupy of Brno.
Nor were Cardinals Alfred Bengsch of Berlin and Karol Wojtyla of Cracow, Poland, permitted to perform any religious ceremonies at the funeral of Cardinal Stepan Trochta of Litomerice. Added to this were reports that Cardinal Trochta’s death April 6, was due to a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by mistreatment the previous day from a communist official named Dlabal. One report spoke of a slapping administered the cardinal by the official.
The superior general of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Mother Eliska Pretschnerova, has been held in Czechoslovakia since Dec. 22, 1973.
The Department for Church Affairs of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture closely questioned both Mother Pretschnerova and her vicar, Sister M. Luceta. Sister Luceta was permitted to return to Rome in June of 1974. No explanation has been given for the refusal of an exit visa for the superior general.
Mother Pretschnerova, sources here say, is being held almost incommunicado. Attempts by her congregation in Rome to reach her by telephone have been successful only twice, and briefly.
Mother Pretschnerova, 63, was born at Nove Zamky and studied in Prague. After the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia she became head of an institute for retarded children in Slatinany, the former motherhouse of her congregation. She was appointed provincial superior of the Bohemian province in 1954, and was elected superior general of the School Sisters of St. Francis in 1970.
