Františkáni v ilegalitě i před soudem. Trestní stíhání členů řádu a soudní procesy s nimi v 70. a 80. letech
Franciscans underground and before the court. Criminal prosecution of the members of the order and their trials in the 1970s and 1980s

Summary/Abstract: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Franciscan Order in Czechoslovakia went through a period of rapid development. It secretly accepted new male and female members, communities were established in the form of family homes and underground studies of theology were organized, while at the same time priests were secretly ordained, mainly in East Germany and in Slovakia. This provoked restrictions on the part of church secretaries and StB, which carried out repressions against the Franciscans (surveillance, wiretapping, house searches, confiscation of religious books, deployment of StB collaborators and recruitment of agents within the Order). Criminal prosecution and trials of members of the Order represented the highest level of repressions against the Order. During the 1970s and in the early 1980s, S. Juřík, J. B. Bárta and L. Trojan were sentenced. The repressions culminated with operation “Whirlpool”, which had been thoroughly prepared and launched by the 5th Department of the 10th Directorate of SNB on 27 March 1983 on the whole territory of Czechoslovakia and in the course of which 18 criminal prosecutions were started and 100 interrogations and 42 house searches took place. Party and security organs were taken aback by the fierce negative response this operation received from the public and by reports in foreign media and protests sent to top Communist organs and the President of the Republic. Therefore, based on orders by the General Prosecutor’s Office, courts proceeded with maximum caution and of all the detainees only P. M. Pometlo and J. Mazanec in Plzeň received a sentence. Other cases did not end up in court nor were any other members of the Order sentenced. StB did not give up and continued in surveillance and disruption of the activities of the Franciscans until 1989. The Communist regime viewed the Catholic Church as an antisocialist opponent until the very end of its era and male orders, including Franciscans, were considered one of the most dangerous ones.

• Details
• Contents