Remembering Cardinal Dominik Duka, who opposed Communism

On October 6, Cardinal Duka underwent emergency surgery at the Central Military Hospital in Prague and had to cancel his planned trip to Gdańsk, Poland. He was supposed to go to the centenary celebrations of that diocese, for which Leo XIV had appointed him papal legate. The festivities were held in his absence on October 14.

On October 30, he was able to return home, but he was hospitalized again on November 1, All Saints' Day. The next day, around noon, the Archdiocese of Prague reported that the Czech cardinal's condition had worsened, and he passed away during the next night.

Cardinal Duka died at the age of 82. Born on April 26, 1943, in Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia, the young Jaroslav Duka (not yet named Dominik) was the son of a soldier who was forcibly conscripted into the Nazi army before deserting to join the British Royal Air Force.

In 1948, his father, considered too close to the West, was imprisoned by the communist regime. This left Jaroslav’s mother to raise him and his sister Eva alone for several years.

Jaroslav's childhood was very difficult. His family was evicted from their home and he wasn’t allowed to continue his studies at university, because of his father's past. This logically fueled the young boy's opposition to the regime. However, he had to do his military service and then start working in a government-run factory.

But he had another calling. After several unsuccessful attempts, he was finally admitted to the Faculty of Theology in Litomerice in 1965, graduating in 1970 and being ordained a priest. During his training, he secretly joined the Dominicans, who were banned by the regime. He took as his name the first name of the founder of the Order of Preachers, Dominik, which he would keep thereafter.

From 1970 onwards, Dominik Duka served as a priest in parishes in western Bohemia. He was transferred there after, being identified by the communist regime while teaching religion. Then in 1975, the government banned him from exercising his priestly duties. He was once again forced to work, spending 15 years as an industrial designer at the Škoda factory in Pilsen.

During this period, he took his perpetual vows. Together with other Dominicans, he established a secret society in a house to train members of the Order and publish religious samizdats (secretly self-published writings against the Soviet government).

In 1976, he took charge of the Dominican Order's teaching activities. He created a teaching network with the help of Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, then Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland, a country where the Church had a stronger foothold than in Czechoslovakia, despite difficult relations with the communist regime there as well.

In 1981, the police arrested Father Dominik Duka. He was then sentenced to 15 months in prison in Bory. Later, he would describe this period as fruitful, because it allowed him to meet all the big names in the opposition, notably Václav Havel, as well as many religious superiors. He celebrated clandestine masses for these acquaintances, who remained his friends thereafter.

“After 1989, I found myself in the role of: ‘Come on, negotiate, you know Havel, you know Dienstbier…,’” he later recounted. Václav Havel (1936-2011) became the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992, then the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, after the country split from Slovakia. Although relatively detached from the Catholic faith, the “philosopher president” maintained a deep friendship with Cardinal Duka. Jiří Dienstbier (1937-2011), for his part, became Minister of Foreign Affairs and then High Representative of the UN in Yugoslavia.

Between 1986 and 1998, Father Dominik Duka became provincial of the Dominicans of Czechoslovakia. His order was legalized in 1989 after the “Velvet Revolution,” and he obtained the return of monasteries to the city in 1990 after 40 years of totalitarianism.

Father Duka became considered one of the architects of his country's moral reconstruction after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also established himself as a prolific intellectual, as a biblical scholar, and as a contributor to numerous universities and journals, notably Communio. He was actively involved in the Czech translation of the Jerusalem Bible, which was published in 2009.

In 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Hradec Králové, his hometown. While remaining in his diocese, he was also apostolic administrator of Litomerice from 2004 to 2008. He received the Grand Cross of the Order of Malta and was awarded the Cross of Merit, First Class, by the Czech Army in 2008.

In 2010, Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Prague. That same year, he was elected head of the Czech Bishops' Conference. He then led a long battle to have the Church's property — confiscated by the communists — returned. He won his case in 2015.

In 2012, he was made a cardinal by the German pontiff, with whom he had an excellent relationship, which continued after Benedict XVI's resignation. He was one of the cardinals who visited him at his residence at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery.

Cardinal Duka participated in the 2013 conclave. He was one of the cardinals who signed a book defending the traditional view of the family during the second synod on the family in 2015.

He distanced himself from Pope Francis' position, particularly on the sensitive issue of access to communion for divorced and remarried persons. He expressed his doubts in an exchange of letters with Cardinal Fernández, then the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the fall of 2023.

Cardinal Dominik Duka was often a defender of religious freedom for Christians around the world, not hesitating to criticize Turkey or China.

In 2022, Cardinal Duka contracted COVID-19 and was unable to participate in the ad limina visit of the Czech episcopate. In May of the same year, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Prague at the age of 79. He thus retired four years after the legal age, as the Czech government had requested that he remain in office.

On March 29, 2025, Cardinal Duka presided over the Mass for the jubilee pilgrimage of the Czech Republic in St. Peter's Basilica. About 2,000 pilgrims were present from that country. Today, Czech society is very secularized, but there is still a solid Catholic core among the elites and in academic circles.

In the absence of Pope Francis, who was convalescing, Cardinal Duka read a message in which the Argentine pontiff encouraged Czech faithful to become “witnesses of peace and hope in a world that so badly needs it, including in Europe.”

These words take on particular significance in the context of the war in Ukraine, a country strongly supported by the Czechs. “Those who trust in God are never abandoned, even in times of trial, such as persecution,” Pope Francis said.

Having turned 80 on April 26, 2023, Cardinal Duka didn’t participate in the recent conclave that led to the election of Leo XIV. Nonetheless, he remained a moral authority among the cardinals. He also participated in some of the general congregations that identified the challenges of the new pontificate.

After Cardinal Duka's death, the College of Cardinals now has 245 cardinals, including 127 electors and 118 non-electors in the event of a conclave.

In a telegram addressed to the current Archbishop of Prague, Jan Graubner, and made public on November 6, Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to “a pastor forged in the faith and an intrepid proclaimer of the Gospel.”

In this message, which was more detailed and personal than is customary when cardinals die, the Pope said he remembered “with admiration his courage in the period of persecution when, deprived of his freedom, his following of Christ never faltered.”

“With a father's heart, he led the people of God, promoting reconciliation, religious freedom, and dialogue between faith and society," wrote Leo XIV.

“His episcopal ministry, based on the Dominican charism of truth and charity, as we are reminded by his motto, In Spiritu Veritatis [‘in the spirit of truth,’ remains an example of faithful devotion to the mission,” wrote the Pontiff. He ends by entrusting “the soul of this good and generous servant to Divine Mercy.”