Velehradská pouť v kontextech doby
The Velehrad Pilgrimage in the period context

Summary/Abstract: Doležalová, Markéta (ed.): Velehrad vás volá! Prague: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů, 2017, 408 pp., ISBN 978-80-87912-83-6. The voluminous almanac titled "Velehrad is calling!" contains presentations delivered during the June 2015 international conference held in Velehrad, South Moravia, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the mass religious pilgrimage in 1985 which commemorated the 1100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius. The event manifested a clear wish of the faithful to freely practice religion in Communist Czechoslovakia and provided a significant impetus for their activation and for the renaissance of the Catholic Church. The reviewer describes the structure of the publication, presents some selected segments in a greater detail, and adds his own thoughts concerning the importance of the Velehrad Pilgrimage. He especially appreciates the fact that the almanac captures the Velehrad events in a broader period context, with an emphasis on religious life and relations between state authorities and churches both in Czechoslovakia and in other Eastern Bloc countries, including the connection between religious activities and the concept of human rights as accentuated in the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975.

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