Witness of the “Church of
Silence”: a tribute to Czech Jesuit Joseph Koláček
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| Fr Joseph Father Koláček,SJ. on the terrace of the Jesuit Curia in Rome |
Jesuit Fr Joseph Father Koláček died this week. He was 90
years old. Between 1971 and 2001, he headed the Czech-language Section of
Vatican Radio.
By Vatican News
Like so many in his country Czechoslovakia, and throughout
what was then Eastern Europe, Fr Joseph Father Koláček SJ lived his faith in
total secrecy because of the fierce persecution of the communist regime.
Ordained in secret
Originally from the city of Brno, he entered the Jesuit
novitiate in 1948.
It was an extremely difficult time: in Communist
Czechoslovakia, priests were imprisoned, and young men were forced into
military service, which was particularly harsh, and itself almost a form of
imprisonment.
Fr Koláček had to conduct his studies in Theology and
Philosophy in secret, and in 1968, still in secret, he was ordained a priest.
The Prague Spring
1968 was a critical year for Czechoslovakia: in August,
Soviet tanks entered the capital to suppress the so-called "Prague
Spring", Alexander Dubcek's courageous but futile attempt to reform the
communist regime from within.
While young people in Western Europe and the United States
were taking to the streets to claim vague demands for freedom, the youth of
Eastern Europe were prevented even from living their faith in the light of day.
Vatican Radio
Because of this climate of growing intolerance, the young Fr
Koláček was forced to emigrate to Innsbruck, where, on the instructions of his
Jesuit Provincial, he spent time training with Austrian radio.
That training stood him in good stead when he arrived in
Rome in the 1970’s and began working at Vatican Radio.
He remained there as Head of the Czech language Section
until 2001, but continued to collaborate up until 2012.
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