Velehradská pouť 1985 v církevně-politických kontextech
The 1985 Velehrad Pilgrimage in Ecclesiastical and Political Contexts

Summary/Abstract: The pilgrimage at Velehrad, Moravia in July 1985, which grew to become a huge anti-regime manifestation, is seen as the symbol of the turning point in the further direction of the church structures and, amongst other things, also led to closer communication between the ecclesiastical and secular dissent that started after the establishment of Charter 77. The actual course of this holiday and many of the preceding events are also inseparably linked to the transformation of church discourses after the appointment of Pope John Paul II in 1978 when the Vatican still followed a much stronger policy toward socialist countries. The Vatican’s increasing influence on the church also came to the attention of the Analytical Section of Department X of the State Police (Department for Combating the Inner Enemy), which acknowledged an upsurge in church activities, and that the “reactionary clerics”, as they called them, were much more aggressively stressing the need to resolve ecclesiastical issues, relying on the new Pope John Paul II, who was supposed to exercise his authority to give them greater space for their activities. It may be said therefore that the appointment of a Pope from a communist state was of fundamental importance for the further development of strategies against the Eastern Bloc.

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