GERALDINE FAGAN

“Premohli ste strach.” Making his first papal visit to then-Czechoslovakia in April 1990, John Paul II’s words to the people were, “You have overcome fear.” Just months earlier, the peaceful mass protests of the Velvet Revolution had delivered the country from four grim decades of Communist rule. Those grueling years had left their mark, the Pope acknowledged to the faithful of Bratislava, where a multitude filled an airfield to hear Mass on the second day of his visit. But he also drew attention to feats of heroic perseverance, especially by the young, “whom they tried to mislead, but who have not lost their thirst for truth, justice, and love, and who have become, in the light of these values, the protagonists of the recent changes.”1 

“Nebojte sa!” More than a quarter century later, the choice of a Pope John Paul II quotation for a Catholic window display in downtown Bratislava recalls a very different message: “Do not be afraid!” These biblical words of encouragement were famously repeated by Karol Wojtyła on his ascendancy to the papacy in October 1978, a time when prospects for the Catholic Church in his native Poland as well as Czechoslovakia still looked bleak.2

Spiritual paralysis?

Forty years have passed since that inaugural papal homily. Does its sentiment resonate in today’s independent Slovakia due to a lingering sense of spiritual paralysis? Or has the Catholic Church succeeded in harnessing the youthful commitment to righteousness noted by John Paul II during his 1990 visit? While in the Slovak capital Bratislava in late 2017, the East-West Church Report asked young Catholic adults how their lives and faith have been shaped by the Church’s trajectory in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Zuzana Babicová has chaired the European branch of the World Student Christian Fellowship and is now Slovakia’s representative to this ecumenical youth movement. She was raised by practicing Catholic parents in Zvolen, a town in central Slovakia. The freedoms of the 1990s meant that, unlike them, she was able to attend  Catholic elementary and secondary schools run by the local diocese. Yet Babicová sees a personal sense of faith, rather than the influence of her family or the Church institution, as key to her continued practice of Catholicism. “Everyone has their own reason, even if they are not conscious of it. I went through periods of having questions and doubts,” she acknowledges, “but it was just believing that this is what I want to follow.”

Dominican Input

Looking back, Babicová recognizes the support of the Dominicans, a Catholic order devoted to preaching and education. Priests at the Dominican priory near her childhood home were not afraid to tackle difficult subjects, she recalls, and as an older high school student she benefitted from the events they hosted for college students. When she herself moved to Bratislava to study, Babicová also found Dominican priests serving with the university chaplaincy. “They were really positive role models. The Dominicans are intellectually grounded, so they ask questions and bring doubts into certain subjects. They study a lot themselves; it’s part of their spirituality.”

Babicová also praised her experience of the International Dominican Youth Movement in Slovakia [Slovak: Medzinárodné hnutie dominikánskej mládeže na Slovensku], which organizes quarterly retreats for the under-35s at its Pustý Dvor study center near Ábelová in the country’s rural heartland. Their aim is to reach out to young people who want to deepen their faith or discover it still; who have unresolved questions of faith, or whose own faith has become a huge question; (…) We want to accompany seekers or walk with them as co-seekers.

Here, the Movement is inspired by Czech Catholic theologian Tomáš Halík’s belief that tomorrow’s Christianity will be neither an “ideology” nor a religion in the sense of a “system of beliefs and rituals” (…) but it must and can be a school of faith, hope and love; a school according to the ideal of medieval universities, of that community of life, prayer, and study in which the truth was sought in free discussion, and what had been meditated upon was given to others (according to the principle of contemplata aliis tradere).3

The Latin phrase contemplata aliis tradere [to hand down to others the fruits of contemplation] derives from 13th-century Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas. It forms part of his argument that an active life delivering to others the fruits of contemplation by means of preaching and teaching is better than a solely contemplative life, “because such a life presupposes an abundance of contemplation. Thus Christ chose such a life.”4 Aquinas was a Dominican, and the phrase is a motto of the order. 

The Communist regime prevented the Dominicans and other Catholic orders from functioning in thenCzechoslovakia. Their activities were therefore unfamiliar to Babicová’s parents, whose only permitted church involvement was Mass attendance. “What is now available to young people is incomparable to what my parents could receive as spiritual guidance or support from the Church when they were young in the 70s and 80s,” Babicová noted to the EastWest Church Report. Her mother has since taken advantage of the newer possibilities for theological study and become a lay Dominican.  

Michal Brnický, an accounting analyst with a multinational IT company, was also raised Catholic by believing parents. Unlike Babicová, he is just old enough to remember the tail end of the Communist era, and the tension between his family’s faith and the political system. When Brnický started first grade in September 1989, his father clashed with the school because he insisted his son address teachers as “Mr.” or “Mrs.” rather than “Comrade.” But matters did not come to a head, as the regime collapsed with the Velvet Revolution that same November. In kindergarten, Brnický had joined the Little Sparks [Slovak: Jiskřičky]–a Czechoslovakian Communist organization for young children–because his mother did not want him to feel left out. But he was not taken in by making paper doves to wave at the annual May 1st parade of factory workers. “Absurd! It was about peace, but the whole regime was militaristic.”

Inner sense of faith

When a Christian school opened following the Communist collapse, Brnický was quickly transferred to its first class of Catholic and Lutheran pupils, his city of Liptovský Mikuláš in northern Slovakia being home to a sizeable Lutheran population. Like Babicová, Brnický recalls being attracted to the Catholic Church due to an inner sense of faith. He enjoyed serving as an altar boy and learned to pray the rosary at an early age. “I went to the living room to pray when no one was there because there was a cross there,” he recalls. “So there was some inclination since childhood. 

Brnický also has close knowledge of the Dominicans, having spent four years as a member of the order. He did not remain, however, and cites the formidable challenges of reestablishing monastic life in post-Communist Slovakia. The key problem, he told the East-West Church Report, was the lack of a middle-aged generation as a consequence of the Communist restrictions. Some older members of the order had lived in a monastery during World War II, Brnický recalled, including one over a hundred years old. But others had been in prison, in an ordinary parish setting, or in a few cases kept their status secret, including one whose own mother had not known he was a priest. As a result, “they didn’t have the experience of living in a monastery, or a true sense of being a Dominican,” Brnický rued. 

While enthusiastic, the newer brothers were naturally inexperienced, “so this wisdom, this paternal element, was lacking.” Yet Brnický also reports receiving strong personal encouragement from clerics such as Bishop Rudolf Baláž of Banská Bystrica (d. 2011), who was barred from further theological study in the 1960s and banned from serving as a priest in the 1970s. Bishop Rudolf insisted on a strong and independent role for the Church as chair of the Slovak Catholic Bishops’ Conference from 1994 to 2000.5 

Reflecting upon the Church’s current role in Slovak society, Babicová noted that churches are quite full, even though attendance is said to have fallen. Yet she wondered how many people go to Mass due to “peer or family pressure, or just because it’s tradition to go to church on Sunday.” Here, she contrasted her experience as a student in Aberdeen, Scotland, where churches were empty, but she found people to be “more truthful, and in a way more faithful.” Babicová also considers the Catholic Church in Slovakia to be “quite passive” as an institution, especially on issues such as government corruption. Albeit intrigued by the question, she was unsure whether this was a legacy of Communism, however, as she had “always seen the Catholic Church like this.”

Communist mindset 

More familiar with the issue, Brnický maintained that both the Czech Republic and Slovakia have still to overcome their Communist past. Here, he cited the advancement of Bratislava-born Andrej Babiš to the post of Czech Prime Minister in late 2017, even though archival records indicate that he was an agent of the Communist secret police during the early 1980s.6 When Communism fell, “we were happy to have a revolution without blood,” Brnický noted, “but the problem was that the new politicians came to an agreement with the old ones, and we were unable to replace all the people in government who were ideologically Communist. So many of them remained, and the mindset as well.” 

Brnický sees Communist-era thinking further preserved in what he considers the Slovak Catholic Church’s “very defensive approach to the outside world.” This stance is understandable for several reasons, he suggests. During the Communist era, people were pressured to keep their faith  private, leading usually active parishioners such as teachers and doctors to attend Mass in churches where they were not known, as there were “spies in churches looking for people who should be ideologically ‘free from the burden of religion’ from the Communists’ point of view.” The Church was also restricted in its ability to select bishops, Brnický added, with some dioceses long vacant and some clerics collaborating with their oppressors, such as through the pro-regime Pacem in Terris Association of Catholic Clergy [Slovak: Združenie katolíckych duchovných Pacem in terris.]7

Message of mercy 

Now that the Communist restrictions are no more, the Church has transferred its hostile stance to homosexuality and other gender issues, Brnický observes. “Here in Slovakia to be Catholic is very connected to these topics.” (The East-West Church Report noted that one of the few flyers in Bratislava’s St. Martin’s Cathedral was for a free lecture entitled “Gender: Instrument of Neo-Leftist Revolution.”) This emphasis is unhelpful to most Catholics, for whom the subject is peripheral, Brnický argues. He contrasted it with Pope Francis’ wish to convey “the message of misericordia, mercy,” and the more positive approach of clerics such as Archbishop Stanislav Zvolenský of Bratislava. They see their first priority in more positive terms–as support for the family– said Brnický. Given the pervasiveness of problems such as divorce and abortion, he noted, “It’s true that families are not in a very good situation.” 

Following Sunday Mass at the angular modern church run by the Salesians of Don Bosco on Miletičova Street, most of the parishioners streaming out of the doors were young families. Quizzed by the East-West Church Report on the challenges of engaging young Slovaks and the relevance of the Communist era, the parish’s Fr. Andrej Kňaze maintained that democracy is still fragile in the country, as “critical thinking is not so developed” in Slovak society due to a lack of democratic tradition. At the same time, he pointed to the dangers of Western materialism: “Society is forgetting that life is not only the 70, 80 years we are here. We are losing the perception of eternity, and we are lacking the movements, structures, and testimonies that will help young people not to forget that there is a God, eternal life. And so they are lacking in hope.”

Beacons of hope

Yet this is not to say that the situation is hopeless. Fr. Andrej directed the East-West Church Report to Mamateyka, an expansive Salesian youth center and chapel founded in 1996 in the workingclass Bratislava suburb of Petržalka. The focus of the Salesian order is assistance to poor children, and the center provides sports, music, and other social activities to several hundred young people in the neighborhood, mostly from nominally Catholic families. On the East-West Church Report’s visit, some of the approximately 100 lay volunteers were preparing the café area for a free concert by May Be Siblings. This Bratislava band held their audience in rapt attention with lilting instrumentals on violin and electric piano, against the visual backdrop of aerial footage filmed at locations including Rome and Mont Saint-Michel in Brittany.

Mamateyka holds weekly discussion groups for the children on God, the family, and relationships in addition to such events, young volunteer Maria Šimkovičová told the East-West Church Report. Given the prevalence of smartphones, the center’s main challenge is to have the children co-operate with one another and be still, however: “To be quiet, listen, and apply some principles to their lives is the most important thing for them right now.” Šimkovičová, her husband, and fellow Mamateyka volunteers also have their own discussion groups, “as young adults trying to know God better.” 

Across from Michael’s Gate, a medieval entrance tower to Bratislava’s old town, is another Catholic outreach center alongside the baroque St. John of Matha Church: Dom Quo Vadis [Latin: Where are you going?]. Formerly a Soviet Book store, the building houses a café, theology library, exhibition and event space, as well as rooms for counselling and Bible study. Passersby might assume it to be like any other bohemian café in Bratislava, with its brightly painted bookshelves and mid-century modern furniture. But menu entries are accompanied by suggestions for spiritual reading, and after placing a donation into a jar in return for whatever menu items they have chosen, visitors are invited to select a piece of paper with a biblical verse. 

Notes 

1. SK-Slovakia 1990, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TLgYoxu3uEs; [Italian] John Paul II, “To the Faithful of Bratislava,” 22 April 1990, https://w2.vatican.va/content/ john-paul-ii/it/speeches/1990/april/documents/hf_jp-ii_ spe_19900422_fedeli-bratislava.html.
2. “Homily of His Holiness John Paul II for the Inauguration of His Pontificate,” 22 October 1978, https://w2.vatican.va/ content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_ hom_19781022_inizio-pontificato.html.
3. [Slovak] http://dominikani.sk/diela/medzinarodne-hnutiedominikanskej-mladeze-slovensku-adom/.
4. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ, III, Q. 40, Art. 1, ad. 2.
5.  Ivan Remiaš, “Rudolf Baláž, Chairman of the Slovak Bishops’ Conference,” The Slovak Spectator, 1 February 1999, https:// spectator.sme.sk/c/20012180/rudolf-balaz-chairman-of-theslovak-bishops-conference.html.
6. “Czech Leader Loses Case on Collaborating with Secret Police,” U.S. News and World Report, 13 February 2018, https:// www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-02-13/czechleader-loses-case-on-collaborating-with-secret-police.
7.  George Weigel, The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 168-9.

Geraldine Fagan is editor of the East-West Church Report.