Occasional
Papers 53
 A
Communist government ruled Czechoslovakia for the period 1948 to 1989
and during
this time, the Catholic
Church was persecuted and religious orders as well as regular clergy
were suppressed. The communist rule collapsed in 1989-1990 in what has
been called the Velvet Revolution. In his years in Rome as a professor
(1961 to 2003 save for one year), Redemptus Valabek would apply each
year at the Czech Embassy in Rome for a visa under the guise of visiting
his parents=
relatives. Sometimes he was successful, sometimes not.
When Redemptus was able
to visit Czechoslovakia, he went from place to place never announcing,
when he was leaving an area, what his destination was. He contacted the
Carmelite, Methodius Minarik, who was secretly forming recruits in the
1970's into membership in the Carmelite Order in an attempt to restore
the order in Czechoslovakia. One of these was Alois Juran who came from
Valassko in the Moravian countryside, the area Redemptus=
parents were from. Redemptus had brought Alois into contact with Father
Methodius who placed him in his program.
What Redemptus saw and heard during his Czechoslovakian visits was
never written down because of the danger involved. On his return to Rome
after his visits, Redemptus would verbally brief the Carmelite Curia in
Rome on his secret meetings with individual Czech Carmelites. After the
collapse of the communist regime, Johann Steneker, vice general, and John
Malley, prior general, separately visited the Carmelites in Czechoslovakia
in 1990 and 1991 respectively. On each of these trips, Redemptus
accompanied them as guide and translator. It was on the 1990 visit that
John Malley established the Carmelite government for the Bohemian and
Moravian Delegation.
Once they were free to
travel, Redemptus invited the Czech Carmelites to Rome where he was their
guide and arranged accomodations for them. His letters to them were a
source of encouragement. Redemptus persuaded the Bohemian and Moravian
Delegation to invite the sisters of the Institute of Our Lady of Carmel from
Rome=s via Baglioni
to begin foundations there. He was also instrumental in having the
missionary workers, Donum Dei, go to Czechoslovakia after the breakdown of
the communist regime.
As the Carmelite from
Czechoslovakia, Josef Jancar, has written, Redemptus Valabek was to them
the sign of a God connected man working unselfishly for Church and Carmel.
He added: with his passing, we have lost very much but that is what God=s
Kingdom acquired.
Alfred
Isacsson, O. Carm.
The material above was
supplied to me by e mails from John Malley and Josef Jancar. These have
been
deposited in Redemptus=
file in the Provincial Archives.
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