Habemus archiepiscopum! Josef Beran novým pražským arcibiskupem
Habemus archiepiscopum! Josef Beran as a new Prague Archbishop

Summary/Abstract: The study deals with negotiations of the Czech political representation with the Holy See that preceded the appointment of the Prague archbishop. The nomination of the archbishop and completion of the elderly bishopric body, affected in several cases by consequences of war events and by different war development in Bohemian Lands and in Slovakia, were results of a long, often complicated negotiation about suitable candidates. A post-war development in Czechoslovakia was marked by a change of the political course and this became evident also in the Czechoslovak approach to Vatican and to the Roman Catholic Church. A timely consuming search for a right candidate to fill the Prague Archbishopric, vacant for five years after the death of Karel Kašpar (April 21, 1941), was clear evidence to this end. A successful outcome was, at first, prevented by the non-existence of bilateral diplomatic relations, by putting the pre-war contractual basis (the so-called modus vivendi) into question and by inability to reach an agreement on the suitable personality. The future archbishop was expected to have spent the World War II in the archdiocese. The Prague government did not assent to Vatican’s promise of a cardinal’s dignity for bishop Mořic Pícha from the end of 1945, when Vatican insisted on nomination and offered a seat in the College of Cardinals hoping this would accelerate establishment of a Czechoslovak diplomatic mission in Vatican and help solve the question of mutual diplomatic relations. At this time, a sudden and unexpected testimony of K. H. Frank came to light (as if to order), which made an end of all hopes of bishop of Hradec Králové M. Pícha who had come from Roman university and had contacts to former university fellows inside the Vatican structure. Another candidate, abbot of Strahov monastery Stanislav Bohuslav Jarolímek, met the requirement of a connection between the future archbishop and anti-Nazi resistance, yet, he did not pass the information process. Vatican, in effort to defend its position in the centre of Europe and in Czechoslovakia as one of the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, intentionally opted for a compromise and nominated Josef Beran, so far a less known, yet a competent and energetic candidate with a high morale standard who had a difficult task to consolidate the home church paralysed by the war. A long way to the appointment of Josef Beran to the position of the third Prague Archbishop in the history of independent Czechoslovakia was not only an issue between the Cabinet and the Holy See, it was also a consequence of an exhausting world war, which is documented by the complicated relation of many European governments to Vatican in the post-war era.

• Details
• Contents