Calling former Czech President Vaclav Havel a “friend and fellow prisoner,” the president of the Czech bishops’ conference said the entire nation owes Havel a debt of gratitude for its freedom and the new flourishing of Czech life and culture.
Archbishop Dominik Duka of Prague, who was imprisoned with Havel by the communists, asked that the bells of all Catholic churches in the Czech Republic ring at 6 p.m. Dec. 18 in memory of the former president who died that morning at the age of 75.
The archbishop, who met Havel in prison in 1981 and continued to meet with him after the end of communism in 1989, was scheduled to celebrate Havel’s funeral Mass Dec. 23 in St. Vitus Cathedral.
People are inclined to forget the role of Alexander Dubcek. It was his courage which seems to have motivated Czecks to hanker after the freedom Havel and others finally achieved.
Listening to the radio broadcasts asking for help as the Soviet tanks rolled in made a big impression on me as an eight year old, and a rather shameful impression.
Important point well made (as usual), PM. As one who is old enough to remember 1956 in Hungary, the events in 1968 in Czechoslovakia were crushingly evocative and gut-wrenching. Dubcek started something that the brutality of the Soviet regime couldn’t finish with tanks. But they surely did snuff it out for a while. Havel’s pen was the tool that pried the tank armour open. Once breached, light poured through.
A slight digression: It is interesting to me that the loss of Havel and Hitchens in the same week shines a light on Orwell, a kind of linking figure in many ways between these literary giants.
#2 NoVA Scout – It has been good to see both Hungary and the former Czeckoslovakia emerge from the long night.
The effect of Orwell on Havel and Hitchens – perceptive comment. Perhaps all three had quite a bit in common. As far as I know Havel came from an educated and affluent artistic, industrial and ambassadorial family who lost everything in the Communist take-over. Because of that, he had to educate himself after high school level until he was able to get himself into college briefly. Hitchens and Orwell both came from ‘service’ [military/civil service] families and had both been privately educated becoming what we here would call ‘public school rebels’.
Through different circumstances, with privileged backgrounds and good educations all three had ended up having to make their own way in the world. All became radical in different ways, and all came to use writing as a very effective tool or weapon. The pen can indeed be mightier than the sword. I imagine nowadays perhaps they might all have become bloggers and tweeters.
As for the extent each may have affected the other – that would be interesting to know.
Hitchens wrote a lot about Orwell and was, as an essayist, a close lineal descendant in many ways. We must hope that there’s another immediately in the wings.
By the way, I was in London on business last week and, as is my habit, walked everywhere. I happened to be staying right up next to St. Paul’s and daily passed by Pageantmaster Court. I kept looking for you, but, alas, in vain.
#4 Thanks for remembering me – perhaps you managed evensong at Westminster Abbey. Happy Christmas.
Did manage same at St. Paul’s, PM. Perhaps a couple of hundred in attendance. Virtually all seemed to be tourists, completely ignorant of the liturgy. I felt a bit foolish at first, when I stood for the Confession of Faith. I was only one of a handful. A few words in, however, I realised that standing up as part of a few in a crowd was energising.
Yes, its an odd set up. They stand for the Magnificat and sit for the Holy Gospel.