Abstract:
Negotiations between the state and the church began immediately after the
communist takeover in February 1948. The negotiations should have resulted in an
agreement of the position of church in Czechoslovakia. However, the negotiations were
later precluded by various state imposed anti-clerical precautions. In 1949, the state’s real
intention was unambiguously revealed – to subjugate or destroy the church in
Czechoslovakia. The internment of top representatives of the catholic church and arrests of
ordinary priests took place at that time together with state organized anti-clerical actions
aimed against the church unity. These aspirations culminated by the politically motivated
trials against the church. The Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem tried members of various
churches and religious societies together with former members of the Czechoslovak
People's Party. This paper is concerned with six selected cases in which Catholic priests
were prosecuted. All of them were sentenced to confinement and their spiritual activities
were interrupted or even precluded.
