Jan Šrámek a Bohumil Stašek. Příklady souladu i disonance české a moravské katolické politiky po roce 1918
Jan Šrámek and Bohumil Stašek. Two Examples of Harmony and Dissonance within the Czech and Moravian Catholic Politics after 1918

Summary/Abstract: Two outstanding Catholic politicians, Jan Šrámek and Bohumil Stašek, members of the People’s Party, and their political activities in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars are examined and compared in the study. Their personal and political career refl ects not only the peripeteia of the political and religious situation in the First Czechoslovak Republic, characterized by a strong influence of the secularization and anti-Catholic wave existing in the country, but also the regional diff erences between Bohemia and Moravia. Their common denominator consisted in the eff orts aimed at improving the negative view of Catholicism in the nation’s eyes. In spite of these common eff orts, however, each of them chose to follow a diff erent way in practical political work. Šrámek compressed the Catholic political program in the narrow limits of short-time and often defensive solutions, and was able to achieve a compromise even with his ideological opponents, which helped the Party score important political points, but it was also a target of criticism by some Catholic circles. Stašek diff ered from Šrámek by his endeavor to formulate clear ideological concepts and rather off ensive political ideas that were often based on the Pope’s revival program for the Church. These features gave later rise to ideological diff erences between the People’s Party Members and resulted in a political and power struggle inside that party of political Catholicism.

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