Papežovi špioni Česká provincie Tovaryšstva Ježíšova v soukolí moderních dějin na příkladu P. Antonína Zgarbíka SJ
Papal spies. The Czech Province of the Jesuit Order in the machinery of modern history using the example of Father Antonín Zgarbík from the Society of Jesus

Summary/Abstract: This study is devoted to the Czech province of the Jesuit Order and its operations during the time of two totalitarian regimes. Against the backdrop of developments in ecclesiastical relations in Germany, a portrait is painted of the ideological conflict between the Nazis and the minority Catholic Church. Furthermore, the study deals with the relationship between the Nazis and German Jesuits, whom they perceived as perfectly trained agents from the Pope’s espionage service with networks extending all over the world. Whereas the Catholic Church in the Third Reich had to withstand harsh persecution, the Sudeten German clergy enthusiastically welcomed the Nazis in Czechoslovakia and subsequently in the Reich’s Sudetenland district. The clergy only adopted a more sober approach after their own experience of the brutal practices of the new regime in the Sudetenland. The Czech Catholic Church in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia found itself in a different situation. Besides the ideological conflict, it primarily had to contend with the efforts of the Nazis to Germanize the entire Czech nation. Pulpits became a permanent instrument employed in the battle to preserve national identity. Using the example of the vice-provincial of the Czech province of the Jesuit Order, Father Antonín Zgarbík, this study outlines various forms of anti-Nazi resistance among the religious as well as the lesser known stories of members of the community. It also presents the reasons for their persecution and imprisonment. After the defeat of Nazism, there was a short-period before the advent of another totalitarian regime in which the activities of the order were revived. In February 1948, another hegemonic regime came to power, i.e. “godless communism,” which brought with it the systematic persecution of the clergy. This lasted until the collapse of the regime in 1989. Of all the holy orders, the Jesuits were the most affected. This study documents the specific forms of persecution directed against the Jesuit Order and it devotes itself to the not so well known circumstances surrounding the internment and detention of members of the community in the 1950s. The fate of the vice-provincial Father Antonín Zgarbík of the Society of Jesus allows us to observe the measures that the state used against holy orders, not only in the 1950s but also in the 1960s, i.e. during the period when thousands of political prisoners were released after a general amnesty in 1960. Paradoxically, at the same time, other clergy members were arrested and tried in a so-called second wave of trials against holy orders. The tragic story of Father Zgarbík of the Society of Jesus illustrates the operations of the Czechoslovak judicial and prison system, the institute of clemency, and the circumstances that decided the fate of a human life in an era when there was an “easing” of the communist regime. In conclusion, the study also takes note of the similarities between the methods of Nazi and communist propaganda as well as the forms of persecution that were directed against the community of the Jesuit Order.

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