Duka tipped to become cardinal

The Czech Republic will soon have its second contemporary member to the College of Cardinals in the person of Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka, a former dissident and a one-time prison cellmate of the late President Václav Havel.

Pope Benedict XVI will officially welcome 22 new cardinals, including Duka, into the Catholic Church leadership in Rome Feb. 18 at the midday Angelus for the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, the Vatican announced on its official radio channel Jan. 6.

Once named, Duka, Prague's 36th archbishop, will become the 22nd cardinal hailing from the Bohemian and Moravian dioceses.

"I view my appointment as an honor to the Prague Archdiocese," Duka said.

The Vatican views the Prague Archdiocese as a key institution and has regularly appointed cardinals from the ranks of local archbishops since the end of World War II, said Prague Archdiocese spokesman Aleš Pištora, adding the appointment did not come as a big surprise.

The other Czech cardinal, former Prague Archbishop Miloslav Vlk, will reach the age of 80 this spring. Vlk, who was appointed cardinal in 1994 and was once considered a possible papal candidate, will thus become ineligible to participate in the conclave, the body of cardinals that elects the pope.

Under Vatican rules, only cardinals under 80 may participate in the conclave.

In addition to choosing popes, cardinals advise the pontiff when summoned to formal meetings known as consistories.

Originally, cardinals comprised the clergy of Rome serving the bishop of Rome, or pope. Popes were originally chosen by the holy Roman emperor, but a succession crisis in 1056 saw the College of Cardinals step into the role, which they have never relinquished.   

Duka, 68, replaced Vlk as archbishop in 2010, following months of deliberation by the Vatican. Under the motto "In Spiritus Veritatis," or "In the Spirit of Truth," Duka has pledged to engage in dialogue leading to post-communist reconciliation and church restitution, a deal that was struck earlier this month.

He was secretly ordained a priest in 1970 but subsequently barred from priesthood by the communist authorities in 1975.

Religious underground

For the next 15 years, he worked in an automobile parts factory in Plzeň and continued engaging in illegal church activities and disseminating banned literature, which culminated in a 15-month prison sentence in 1981-82.

It is during this time, at the Plzeň-Bory prison, that Duka interacted with Havel, who was also jailed there at the time for his dissident activities.

In 1986, Duka became a provincial of the Czechoslovakian Dominican Province, until his appointment as bishop of Hradec Králové by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

The news of Duka's appointment as cardinal has been welcomed by President Václav Klaus, who is a personal friend of the archbishop and occasionally joins him on hikes.

"I am glad that, with the appointment, Benedict XVI has made it quite clear whom he wants to have by his side in the highest church hierarchy at a difficult time in a contradictory world," Klaus told the Czech News Agency Jan. 6.

The Prague Archdiocese is organizing a pilgrimage for local Catholics wishing to accompany Duka to the Vatican for his official Feb. 18 anointment, Pištora said.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at
mhulpachova@praguepost.com