SANCTIFYING OFFICE

Teaching the Eucharist

The Czech Republic is now mainly an atheist country, and Cardinal Duka has worked to help make the Church’s teaching on the Eucharist understandable. “The celebration of the Body and Blood of Our Lord tells us that God is the Father of all nations and every nation, and is our Savior and Redeemer,” Cardinal Duka pointed out on the feast of Corpus Christi in 2015, referencing the Old Testament texts of the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness. They were a people brought to freedom by God. “If anyone wants to discuss the Eucharist, he should know the Bible and philosophy,” Duka said in response to doubts about the rationality of Transubstantiation. Catholics in the Middle Ages understood that “participation in the Eucharist isn’t cannibalistic, but part of the great mystery in which God gives Himself for man.” When asked about the meaning of the procession of the Holy Sacrament, Duka explained that the Holy Sacrament “is not a symbol of Catholic triumphalism, but a confession of faith in Him who made a covenant at the cost of dying and shedding His blood.” “The most beautiful moment is actually the celebration of the Eucharist, it cannot stand comparison with anything.”

At the start of a National Eucharistic Congress in 2015, Duka said, “The Eucharist is a gift, but also food for the journey of life, the sacrifice of the Lamb, the sacrifice of the righteous Abel, the forefather of Abraham and of the priest Melchizedek, the sacrifice of the new and everlasting.”

He further emphasized the gratuitous nature of the Eucharist when he argued in an interview published ahead of the Congress that, since every person is sinful, seeing the Eucharist as in any way a reward for one’s performance denies the power of the Eucharist. On other occasions, Duka has implied that the understanding of the sacraments as unmerited gifts is undermined by contemporary practice, as “for all sacraments, we have compulsory preparation, somehow forgetting that the ancient Church had mystagogic catechesis, that it spoke to the catechumen of the effects of the sacrament after he was baptized,” whereas now it seems Baptism has become “a difficult test in which I must prove myself to be baptized.” In emphasizing that the Eucharist is the way to Christ, Duka has said: “The Eucharist says I am a man who must go to Christ — to Someone, not to something; to the One who is, who transcends me but wants to lead me. I belong to Christ; therefore I accept Him as my life teacher, as food and drink for the journey, and I will reach the great community of Jesus’ friends, His great flock, which He leads as a shepherd.”

Throughout his writings, Duka focuses on the commandment of love and invites us not to act immediately as an enforcer of rules but to go back to the essence of our Faith and realize that, in the Eucharist, Christ welcomes and strengthens us. “The One who during His Last Supper gave us, as a parting gift, the law of real love, explaining that the one who gives his life for his friends has the greatest love, teaches us to live with others and for others,” Duka has taught. Jesus Himself urges you to create God’s kingdom of peace and love, truth and true freedom.”

Duka reminds us that “it is necessary to realize the great moment of the Eucharistic mystery and the presence of Christ in the sacraments.” He once recalled the story of a child who was not baptized attending Holy Communion without considering it as inappropriate. When a priest found out, he was terrified, to which Duka remarked: There is something called the “baptism of desire, which is supposed to rid us of anxiety so that we do not turn God into a mere policeman or judge.” In another speech, Duka reemphasized this, saying: “Where the Eucharist, the new and eternal covenant, is celebrated, there is an open friendly embrace for us, for you, for all.” He references Moses’ Ten Commandments and Jesus’ commandment of love — a covenant that establishes friendship between God and man in Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the New Covenant.

Vetus Ordo (Traditional Latin Mass)

Answering a question regarding Latin liturgy, Duka explained he has nothing against it or against chanting but urges recognition that liturgy is not an exhibition of baroque art. “I think that it is necessary to follow the history of the liturgy and the Council of Trent itself. Liturgy is not rites; liturgy is life. The Tridentine liturgy would be a living liturgy only if we lived in Tridentine times in all its consequences, with its spirituality and its political order.”

Cardinal Duka regularly expresses his appreciation for traditional liturgy and the importance of rubrics to any sound liturgical celebration. But he often qualifies that appreciation by subordinating liturgical forms to a deeper spirit. In the 2005 Synod on the Eucharist as “Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church,” for example, Duka spoke on the Eucharistic liturgy:

Many of us are convinced that a “Tridentine liturgy” and a “liturgy after Vatican Council II” exist. This is not true. There are different liturgies, and liturgical developments have always existed. We must have great consideration and respect for the liturgy of the Oriental Church, but also for the new developments in the “Latin liturgy.” When the Byzantine liturgy was elaborated, to give honor to Christ, imperial court ceremonial was used, while maintaining, at the same time, faithfulness to the mystery of the Son of God. In this sense, different ways of venerating Christ in Asia, Africa, and Europe should be allowed. The difference between the Latin and the Byzantine liturgy is deeper than the one between the “Tridentine Rite” and the “liturgy of Zaire”!

Duka has further argued that: “Studying the history of the liturgy and the sacraments also encourages new liturgical action. Everything cannot be lowered to an over-meticulous observance of rubrics. We also need to appreciate the deep meaning inherent in the liturgy, and that flows from it.”

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

“Marian reverence is not merely a testimony of history and art in our regions, but it is above all an important element of our spiritual life,” Duka said in a 2013 homily. He underlined that “we always find Our Lady alongside Christ in all crucial and vital moments.”Duka reminds us that Mary is “the Mother of Christian Unity, the Queen of Peace, the Mediator of All Graces. Throughout the year we will approach her as the Virgin of the Mighty and the Refuge of Sinners. We are under her protection, and her Son, Jesus, who was sacrificed for us, goes with us. God the Father is with us and the Holy Spirit connects us.”

GOVERNING OFFICE

Early Years as a Dominican

Dominik Duka entered the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1968. Communists at the time controlled what was then Czechoslovakia, and entering the Dominican Order was illegal. Duka had been a priest for only five years when his state permit as a so-called “spiritual administrator” was withdrawn. As a result, he worked in a Skoda automobile factory for fourteen years. During this time, Duka served as the Dominicans’ provincial vicar, taught and organized events for Dominican seminarians, and set up a clandestine religious-studies center. Because organizing such “religious activities” was not permitted by the regime, Duka was sentenced to fifteen months in prison at Plzeň-Bory. He remained provincial vicar and was later appointed superior of the Dominican Province, then president of the Czech Dominican Conference of Major Superiors, and finally vice president of the Dominican Union of European Conferences of Major Superiors. Duka also taught biblical theology at Palacký University (Olomouc, Czech Republic) before receiving his first episcopal assignment in 1998.

Hometown Bishop

Duka was appointed bishop of his hometown, Hradec Králové, on June 6, 1998, by Pope John Paul II, and was installed on September 26 of that year. During his time as Bishop of Hradec Králové, Duka founded a theological institute in Skuteč. In 2002, he convoked the second diocesan Eucharistic Congress. He published the new statutes of the Holy Spirit Cathedral Chapter and appointed nine canons. From 2000 to 2004 he was vice president of the Czech Bishops’ Conference.

Archbishop of Prague

On February 13, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Duka archbishop of Prague. On his appointment, Duka said: “The Church must engage in a dialogue with society and must seek reconciliation with it. Twenty years ago, we were euphoric about freedom; today we live in an economic and financial crisis, and also to a certain extent in a crisis of values. So the tasks are going to be a little more difficult. But thanks to everything that’s been done, it will not be a journey into the unknown.”

Duka identified two focal points of his pastoral agenda: working with young people and opening up the Church to society. Regarding the latter, Duka said, “The Church should respond more readily to the questions of today’s world. Religious questions and answers must be put and answered in a comprehensible language and correspond to a higher level of people’s education; and so that young people can recognize themselves in these reports so that they can better orient themselves in an increasingly contradictory world.”Duka furthermore said that “one of the ideas to think about for the Church is undoubtedly how to engage young people in liturgical and religious life in order to fit their mentality.” Currently, Duka’s diocese (thanks, in part, to a large Slovak population) is one of the youngest in the Czech Republic — according to Duka, mostly “because of the new Prague quarters and areas with modern technologies. New Church buildings and community centers are being built there; even Bavarian Bishops envy us.”

Duka has also focused on bringing people closer together in pursuit of his dream: “I have a great dream: to make people behave as kindly toward one another throughout the year as they did at Christmas.”

Elevation to the Cardinalate

The announcement that Duka would be elevated to the cardinalate led to protests within the Czech Catholic Church. The reason was that Duka is widely seen as too political, tied too closely to the Czech presidents. In a country where as many as 90 percent of the people are religiously indifferent or atheistic and where even the small minority of persons who are Catholic are divided in their opinions of his pastoral leadership, Duka is aware of the difficulty of speaking in plain terms about the demands of the Catholic Faith and of moral truth. He often tries to create a beachhead for the Church in an unbelieving society by speaking on a wide range of issues, indicating therein the meaningfulness of human life and dignity and the place of Christ therein.

Indeed, on the day he was installed as archbishop of Prague, Duka said that “this cathedral became a symbol of Czech statehood. Above the cathedral, there was never a foreign flag, no swastika, no red flag with a sickle and a hammer. Even in the occupied castle there has always been an island of God and our freedom. These figures show that the Church is not just a dedicated religious institution or a carrier of moral principles. It is part of the nation’s organism and also carries hope and courage for the future as an example of selfless love. I will continue to work with the government and the institutions of our state in the spirit of genuine interest in the continual flourishing of our nation and society, where the family is the foundation of civil and religious community, where education and training have an ethical dimension and a religious aspect. To do so, I am bound by the Christian faith, the legacy of this cathedral, but also the life and sacrifice of my predecessors at the Holy See.”

In 2018 Duka turned seventy-five, and he sent the customary resignation letter to Pope Francis, who asked him to stay on as archbishop of Prague. The Pope accepted his resignation on May 13, 2022, when Duka was 79.

Concerns About the Church Today

In an October 2023 interview with the National Catholic Register, Cardinal Duka expressed concern about the Church hierarchy becoming too involved in temporal affairs in recent decades. He suggested the Holy See has become overly involved in economic and political spheres, sometimes in ways that are “more ideological than politically rational.”

The cardinal also discussed what he sees as a profound crisis in Western civilization affecting the Church, including:

•       The sexual abuse scandal, which he partly attributes to greater societal tolerance of certain acts and “cowardice” of some Church leaders.
•       The emergence of movements like the Synodal Way in Germany.
•       Challenges from globalization and changing demographics within the Catholic Church.

Despite retiring as archbishop in 2022, Cardinal Duka has continued to speak out and maintain a reputation for frankness in addressing controversial issues within the Church while emphasizing the importance of adhering to established Church teachings and structures.

Handling of Sexual Abuse Cases

Unlike elsewhere in Europe, the Church in the Czech Republic has faced relatively few clerical sexual abuse scandals, partly becauseduring the communist era priests were not allowed in schools but also because few went to church.

But in 2019, Cardinal Duka faced a criminal investigation after being accused of covering up a case of sexual abuse in the Dominican Order in the 1990s. The victim, who remained anonymous, said he reported the abuse to then Father Duka who was a provincial of the Dominican Order in the Czech Republic, but that Duka had failed to take action against it. The alleged victim claimed the abuse continued for three years.

It is not clear how the case resolved but in 2019, Cardinal Duka agreed to meet with victims of sexual abuse by priests, after initially being reluctant to do so. In the past, he tended to downplay the problem, claiming that only 10% of accusations against priests were proven.

He was criticized for his initial reactions to the sexual abuse crisis.

In 2010, Cardinal Duka said he saw the scandals as an attack against the Catholic Church, and that such a campaign sought to remove Catholic priests from schools and at the same time, curb their financial support. He described sexual abuse by the clergy as “abominable” but also said it was over-reported, part of a wider “media campaign” against the Catholic Church and the Pope.

The US-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) included Cardinal Duka on its “Dirty Dozen” list of papabiles deemed unfit to become Pope, citing his role in protecting pedophile priests and making offensive statements to victims.

Defense of Benedict XVI

In 2022, Cardinal Duka came to the defense of Benedict XVI when the former pontiff was criticized by German Church leaders for his handling of abuse cases as an archbishop decades earlier. Duka described such criticism as “treason” and “defamation.”

Valuing the Laity

In a 2010 interview following his appointment as archbishop of Prague, Duka said: “I have the impression that our society and some people in the Church, not excluding intellectuals, seem to imagine that the Church is made up of the Pope and the bishops, and then maybe a parish priest can say something. But we are not only a hierarchical Church.”

Acknowledging that “hierarchy plays a certain building role” in the Church, he insisted that “on many issues all members of the Church have a say.”

“They have authority in university, professional and political life, and they present the Church’s views there,” he said, adding that “there is no need for bishops and priests to constantly remind the public of what the Church, the Pope or the Bible says.

“We are to enter into life by saying: ‘this is right, this is good, this is useful, this is true. This is how we need to transform the presence of the Church in our country.’ Declarations and resolutions will not do much. That is the last saving grace. We are to be present right where we are and patiently, often humbly, co-create the life of society.”

In a 2015 interview, Duka praised the efforts of his predecessor, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, to improve the position of laypeople in the Church. “We are going to need capable professionals. Not every church in Europe has so many laypeople working for the Church as we do. And I am especially mentioning the number of women,” he said. Duka stressed that although a “priest needs to be a professional in his spiritual work, in his vocation and profession, in all other areas (where, in fact, he is considered a layperson), there are situations when professionals can step in — people in the fields of economics, construction, culture, or media. And we thus can have a great female adviser, chancellor, or catechist.”

TEACHING OFFICE

Sacred Scripture

Cardinal Duka taught theology to Czech Dominican seminarists and was a biblical theology lecturer at Palacký University (Olomouc, Czech Republic). He also made a major contribution to translating the Jerusalem Bible into Czech. As a scripture scholar, Duka has written extensively on this topic. He has stated: “From the very beginnings to the present day, inspiration has been witnessed by the universal and constant Church tradition. The ancient Church Fathers call the Holy Scripture ‘Oracula Dei dictatas a Spiritu Sancto.’ The Holy Spirit uses the writer as an instrument. The Church’s teaching office, in its various decrees of the assemblies and in various other documents, shows us the continuity of faith in inspiration.”¹Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., Úvod do Písma sv. Starého zákona (Prague: Editio Sti Aegidii, 1992)

Duka frequently references Pope Pius XII’s Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu and the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum. The latter brings us “to use the term ‘truthfulness’ — the truthfulness of the Bible, the truthfulness of God’s revelation,” Duka has said.²Duka, Úvod do Písma.

Prioritizing the “common folk”

In a 2016 radio interview, Duka stressed his commitment to teaching ordinary people. “I’m not a doctor; I’m not a philosopher. Yet let me make a few remarks that will be spoken not in scientific and precise language, but in words that everyone can understand.”Duka was a member of the working class for a large part of his life. During this period, he clandestinely taught the Dominicans. He was also engaged in the publication of unauthorized samizdat literature (an activity that landed him in jail). As cardinal, Archbishop Duka maintains a blog and writes columns and is a frequent guest on radio shows and in other colloquial forums. With his “common folk” language he approaches different audiences and addresses a wide range of issues. The contacts he made during his time in prison also strengthen his bonds with the government.

Reason and Religious Freedom

On the day Duka was installed as archbishop of Prague, he addressed in his homily both the need for rational argumentation (especially needed in the mainly atheist Czech Republic) and the freedom of religion provided by democracy: “To proclaim the Gospel means to preach life and hope for life. Unbelief helps us, like [Christ’s] disciples, not to forget the need for rational argumentation in religious life. Faith is not the fruit of fantasy, passion, or ideological imperative. It is the free and reasonable reflection of a mature person. The gospel is for everyone. Here, the perspective of a genuine democracy has been opened, relying on rationality, not the seduction of pleasing offers.”

Lay Participation in Religious Education

Given the moral state of Czech society, the Cardinal has stressed the importance of the laity becoming actively involved in religious education. In a pastoral letter for the new year 2017, he acknowledged the “common debt” Czech Catholics owe to their predecessors who handed on the faith, and expressed his wish to cooperatively engage with them in the “difficult task” of education.

“I want to pursue and carry out this difficult task together with you in the years to come. Without your cooperation, brother priests, deacons, religious men and women, but above all without the help of you parents and catechists, we will not succeed in this magnificent and unique work,” he said. “We reproach the whole of society and the political sphere for the moral state of society, we lament the disappearance of decency and concern for the other, but let us admit that this is above all our task, we Christians, the Church!

Pro-Life Teaching Sparks Controversy

Cardinal Duka’s frankness and passion for preaching the truth of the faith has occasionally led him into controversy. In 2023, he sparked strong criticism following a post on social media in which he reportedly “compared efforts to legalize marriage for all to the war in Ukraine” and claimed that both Christians and Jews now “face the same pressure as they did under Nazism.”

According to reports, the cardinal wrote that the human being most at threat is not the Ukrainian soldier, but the unborn child who needs a union between a man and a woman. “Yes, the war in Ukraine is terrible, but the war in the West is just as terrible,” Duka reportedly said.

In response to Cardinal Duka’s post, Czech Reform Rabbi David Maxa published an open letter, asserting that the Cardinal’s stance was a “massive distortion of the facts” and asked him not to speak for the Jewish community, Radio Prague International reported.

Communism Versus the Family

In his contribution to the Ignatius Press book Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family: Essays from a Pastoral Viewpoint, Cardinal Duka began by underlining that communism — as he experienced it in the Czech Republic — has played a considerable role in the destruction of the family.

In the essay he argues that the effects of communist ideological pressure to demean and undermine the family cannot be underestimated. “The family,” he writes, “has been pilloried as an exploitative institution, as a place that oppresses spontaneity and destroys hedonistic desire, individual liberty, and so on.”³Winfried Aymans, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family: Essays from a Pastoral Viewpoint (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015). The Cardinal also argues that “the current crisis of the family is closely connected with the destruction of anthropology, that is, of our understanding of human beings as such.”⁴Aymans, Eleven Cardinals. He explains that it is difficult enough for Catholics to consider the concept of man created in God’s image, given that God is invisible and unfathomable; but for those saturated in the religious indifference of this postmodern era, the concept of man is even more complex.

In his essay, Duka underlines that in times when the family and all it stands for is persecuted and oppressed, strength and consolation can be found in studying the scriptural foundations of the faith. These clearly tell us that “father and mother are irreplaceable” because “father, mother, the deepest relationships, the deepest feelings of which man is capable, are the image of He-who-is, in other words, of the living, being God.” ⁵Aymans, Eleven Cardinals. Love, however, must be an “active element,” the Cardinal insists. The “priority of God’s love commits man not to be satisfied with his own love but principally with making a gift of himself to the other.”⁶Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.

Cardinal Duka stresses that the “current debasement of the word ‘love’ shows that true love has been replaced by mere eroticism without the dimension of friendship and gift.”⁷Aymans, Eleven Cardinals. This is particularly true today, he observes, when a man’s “word” often does not seem to be worth anything.

Divorce, he notes, is an all-too-common example of not keeping one’s word, of not being faithful to one’s oath.  He argues that it is, in fact, not only “the spouses’ denial of each other” but even worse, the denial “of who they themselves are.”⁸Aymans, Eleven Cardinals. Duka dares us to remember that “the Cross is the exaltation of keeping one’s word, of the oath that God gave to mankind, of the God who trusts man.” ⁹Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.

Criticism of the Vatican’s Stance Toward Communist China

In July 2024, Cardinal Duka wrote an article in Il Foglio in which he expressed his reservations about Vatican diplomacy during Francis’ pontificate. Noting the weaknesses of Ostpolitik, when the Vatican tried a softer approach to communism in the 1960s and 1970s, he praised the diplomacy of St. John Paul II who, rooting his diplomacy in divine revelation and apostolic tradition, “strengthened underground and dissident information networks in order to raise his voice and extend his radius of action.”

In his article, Duka criticized the Holy See’s relations with China and its famous secret accords with the communist regime. “Silence and complicity with the communists harmed my country and made it easier for the government to imprison dissidents; the silence of the Church in the face of human rights abuses by communist China harms the Catholics of China,” he wrote.

The Cardinal concluded his column by asking the Vatican for something that is lacking in Rome at the moment: “courage.”

“Once again, brave people are paying the price for opposing [communism],” he said. “Reinforced by these such modern witnesses, known or unknown, Vatican diplomacy must recover and raise its voice to join them in the defense of the human person and in the defense of the Gospel. Once again the time for courage has arrived,” he concluded.

Paris Olympics 2024

In light of a blasphemous opening ceremony that mocked the Last Supper and events that promoted gender ideology, Cardinal Duka compared the games to Berlin in 1936 and in Moscow in 1980, saying they all contradicted peace and friendship. “The athletes were used for other purposes: for Nazism, communism and new ideologies,” he wrote on the iDNES.cz blog. His opinion drew some criticism, also from within the Church.

Amoris Laetitia and Two Dubia

Cardinal Duka’s focus on “keeping one’s oath”, his references to the Eucharist as the new and eternal covenant, and other public statements, all suggest that he opposes the proposal—set forth in the 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia—that in certain cases, divorced and civilly remarried Catholics may receive Communion.

As early as 2014, Duka stated that a person who is divorced and civilly remarried “lives in sin with someone he is not lawfully married to” and thus “cannot approach to receive the Eucharist.”

When expressing his opinion on the four cardinals’ dubia following the publication of Amoris Laetitia, Duka said he understood the motives of the cardinals, but did not explicitly reject or support them. In a November 2017 article, the Cardinal urged Catholics to keep in mind that “it is not possible to understand every sentence of the Pope as an infallible, absolutely unconditional binding teaching.”

“This is also true of the much-discussed exhortation Amoris Laetitia,” he said. “Papal infallibility is in fact very limited. In the examples cited, the Pope does not proclaim his ideas ex cathedra as infallible dogmas (indeed, like almost all his predecessors, he never did so during his entire pontificate), but rather offers them for reflection and encourages the search for common solutions that may in time become part of Church teaching.”

In July 2023, Cardinal Duka revealed concerns about lack of clarity regarding Amoris Laetitia’s teaching on Communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics by submitting ten dubia on behalf of Czech bishops to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). The questions focused on pastoral guidance for the reception of Communion by those who are divorced and remarried to someone other than their sacramental spouse.

The DDF, headed by newly appointed prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, responded to Duka’s dubia two months later, stressing that each person, individually, must evaluate their conscience and disposition to receive the Eucharist, with guidance from a priest. Quoting Amoris Laetitia, the DDF response said it was not appropriate to speak of “permissions” to access the sacraments, but rather a process of discernment accompanied by a pastor. It is a ‘personal and pastoral’ discernment.” Priests, the DDF said, have a duty to accompany divorced and remarried individuals in understanding their situation according to Church teaching.

The response also indicated that Amoris Laetitia opens the possibility of accessing the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist in certain cases where there are limitations that attenuate responsibility and culpability. It added that bishops’ conferences should agree on minimum criteria to implement Amoris Laetitia’s proposals, while respecting each bishop’s authority in his diocese.

Cardinal Duka later explained that he submitted the dubia on behalf of the Czech Bishops’ Conference to help clarify the issue for the universal Church. He emphasized that he considers himself “neither progressive nor traditionalist” and stressed the importance of loyalty between bishops and the Pope.

The Vatican’s response prompted criticism from Cardinal Gerhard Müller, a former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who said it contained dangerous ambiguity, potentially leading to a departure from established Church doctrine on marriage, divorce, and reception of the sacraments.

Priestly Celibacy

Asked in a 2011 interview about a push in Germany to abolish priestly celibacy and institute women priests by linking celibacy with clerical sex-abuse, Duka observed: “There is a history of similar statements in Germany, for example the statement ‘We are Church’. It is a group of people who see the Church through their own eyes,” he said.

“Celibacy is voluntary matter,” he said. “Just as someone decides voluntarily to marry, another decides voluntarily to live as a celibate priest. And we see examples of people morally failing in both matrimony and celibacy.”

Other Western claims like those in Germany are also “extremely false,” he said. “Sometimes people blame celibacy for causing the priest shortage. This, however, is not the main cause in a great part of Europe. We see priest shortages in churches that allow priests to marry and even in those that have women in ministry also suffer from a shortage of clergy. All churches in our country have the same problem.”

“There is the ecclesial tradition of celibacy and there is the theological moment when the priestly vocation is conceived as representing Christ in the community as the one priest. I would not change that tradition,” Duka said.

Contraception and Moral Norms

Cardinal Duka has drawn attention to a contraceptive mentality, noting its impact on the Czech Republic, but he has also taken a somewhat moderate line on contraception in general, viewing it as an “ideal” that should be set high but which not all can reach.

In a 2011 interview, he said, “Our society has … the problem of demographic decline. In the past, everyone had an interest in having children; a child was seen as the future of the family.”

“Now,” he said, “the issue of birth control is being addressed, and science will continue to find the means that best suit this. The attitude of the Church in this respect is one of an ideal, everyone can accept that, but not everyone is able to live the ideal and conditions are not always ideal. But these are still tricky things ecclesiastically and require a great deal of discussion.”

Asked by the interviewer what his message would be to Catholics who go to their priest telling him that, for various reasons, they cannot or do not want to have more children, Duka said: “Church authorities defend general norms. That norm is a certain bar, but not everyone is a record holder. An individual situation must be addressed with his or her confessor, who knows all the ins and outs,” he added. “We hold up that bar because society in general is experiencing a pansexual boom and it is dangerous to set the bar lower.”

He qualified his statement saying confessors should address these issues individually, but “that doesn’t mean that the ideals don’t apply.”

The cardinal has also addressed the issue of contraception within the context of pro-life efforts in the Czeck Republic. Reflecting on an opposition banner at the 2016 Prague March for Life that read, “Protected Sex is Not a Crime,” the Cardinal said: “Many things and attitudes are not a crime, but that doesn’t mean they are right. I don’t intend to [trivialize] this topic that the media usually pays a lot of attention to. I merely want to mention that sex that is open to creating life, sex that portrays mutual love and enrichment, is something that, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, belongs to the relationship of a man and a woman joined in holy Matrimony. Protected sex might easily become an expression of selfishness, an unwillingness to accept children, and an expression of separating sex from real love.

Abortion

Cardinal Duka is a fierce opponent of abortion. “If there are no new generations, if there are no families, there will be no Czech nation and no Church in this country,” the cardinal told participants in his homily at the opening 2016 Prague March for Life.

He added: “Our message to the world is: human life is not a dream, it is not a comedy, not a mere experience, and it is meaningful in every form. The problem we call abortion will not disappear when we ban it by law.”

He stressed that education and social climate have played a major role in the choice for abortion in the Czech Republic. “We as a nation have suddenly become convinced of what is untrue,” he said.

The Cardinal concluded his homily, saying: “Man is created in the image of God; he is alive, even if his life has been ended, murdered. Strength does not lie in how many of us there are, but in the truth we have received.”

Cardinal Duka views abortion as one of the greatest evils, calling it “a greater terror and disaster than …  terrorist attacks.”

“We talk about hundreds of dead people with horror but forget about the thousands of dead children,” he wrote in a 2016 article on the Prague March for Life. “Atheists, who criticize the March for Life, should rather get to know the fact that we do not force our opinions on anybody, we don’t make people lose their jobs over it, and we don’t shoot the doctors at the abortion clinics. We only offer the view of believers who accept life as a gift. Not only their own life, but the lives of all people. And they want to treat life with dignity and gratitude in the interest of the future generation that we believe has the right to live.

The Cardinal also stressed the importance of talking about  Church’s help in bringing unwanted children into the world and into a harmonious family, saying it “demonstrates a certain satisfaction with Pope Paul VI and his encyclical Humanae vitae.”

Duka has also addressed head-on how a secular and consumeristic mentality warps people’s view of children and highlighted the paradox that many families today claim that they cannot afford a child or another child for economic reasons, while their grandparents, who lived in much poorer circumstances, had five, eight, or more children.

While acknowledging the sacrifices parents make, Duka said in characteristic frankness: “No one can tell me that a child needs to have the latest designer clothes or be equipped with all the electronics available in elementary school and so on.”

According to Duka, the heart of the matter is whether people see what is truly important in life (parental care, love, and time dedicated to children rather than computers, cell phones, brand-name clothing, and seaside holidays).

He has also lamented children themselves being viewed as a commodity.

“Jesus’ attitude towards children is well known. It makes one shudder to know that many people today treat children as something they can acquire. As if a child were a greater luxury than a new car,” he said.

Talking about a child as a “possession” is “perhaps the worst option parents can utter,” he added. But Duka said he still believes that “young people will see the beauty in a harmonious family again.”

Our Lady as a Model for Women Today

Duka situates the differences between man and woman within God’s creative plan and points to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the model for women. “The first pages of the Bible say that God created man as man and woman, male and female,” he told Czech media. “Not long ago, I saw snippet of a foreign documentary that demonstrated the equality, but also the difference, between a man and a woman, or vice versa, between a woman and a man. I think this difference is [essential to] human society, culture, but also richer life. I can hardly imagine the validity of the claim that the difference between a man and a woman is only in education and in the cultural tradition. For I am a positivist and a realist. I cannot imagine or dare to deny the reality of exact sciences. Yet I ask where fighting stance or class struggle between the sexes came from? Who sent the woman to the kitchen to hold only the wooden spoon? The prototype of Christian womanhood is the Virgin Mary. . . . I have never seen a picture or sculpture on which St. Anne taught the Virgin Mary how to cook, sew socks, iron, or clean, but I have seen her being taught to read.”

Duka also reminds us that “the figure of a woman appears on the pages of the Old Testament in a unique and unrepeatable role, where a woman, a virgin, a young girl, becomes the mother of hope of salvation.”

Euthanasia

Duka has expressed his opposition to euthanasia in these terms: How could a doctor, on the one hand, “swear in one form or another to some version of Hippocratic oath that he will heal patients, not kill them,” especially since most doctors, despite their “philosophy or religion, [are] usually aware that being a doctor is not just a job, but a profession, and even a mission,” while, on the other hand, eliminating disabled children, the elderly, and those who are heavily treated without hope of recovery, as is the case in, for example, the Netherlands?

“This issue is related to the value of human life,” Duka stated. “Which life is more valuable — a young, happy, and healthy person? Or an old, helpless, immobile, or disabled person who has already done his job and will not bring anything else? If today some philosophers, even theologians, claim that human life can be of different value, the gate to hell opens. Of course, it will be nicely decorated with acceptable terminology.”

Duka is pleased with the attitude of the Czech doctors who, on the left and the right, state that euthanasia is not the right way. “Thanks for common sense, thanks for humanity and for a professional medical and healing approach to a disease that threatens mankind: inhuman stupidity,” Duka stated in response.

Same-Sex “Marriage”

Duka has several times denounced homosexual “marriage” and adoption by same-sex couples.¹⁰“I would like to draw attention to a document that refutes the now frequently repeated (and misguided) argument that ‘marriage for all is fair,’ that this is only a minor adjustment that will not hurt anyone but will help others, or that children with parents of the same sex will be just as fine (or perhaps even better) than in classic families or institutions (the myth of orphanages full of unhappy children is very well refuted by Tomáš Zdechovský on his blog, https://zdechovsky.blog.idnes.cz/blog.aspx?c=672899).” Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., Facebook, 6 December 2018, www.facebook.com/dominik.duka.3/posts/2544734515567216. See also Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., “Full Development in Marriage.” The Church “defends the biological function of the family.” As Bishop of Hradec Králové, Duka was very critical of registered partnerships in connection with the approval of the law in 2006, which was vetoed by President Klaus. The veto was eventually overridden by the House of Commons.

According to Duka, registered partnerships denigrate traditional family values. “After all, the ideal couple for raising a child is a man and a woman. Registered partnership completely denies the family when it legalizes the marriage of two people of the same sex,” Duka said at the time.

Regarding the adoption of children by same-sex couples and the use of surrogacy, Duka has said that, in these cases, “a child does not become a gift, but a human right, a claim, to satisfy the desire of adult people,” leading to the “complete emptying and re-defining of the terms ‘human’ and ‘human dignity’. It is my duty to raise my voice when the dignity of human life is compromised under the masquerade of the claims.”

Resistance to the “LGBTQ+” Lobby

In 2011, Duka wrote to the mayor of Prague requesting that he “reconsider carefully his patronage of the Prague Pride festival,” since it “is not a question of the right of a minority to tolerance, but a promotion of a relaxed lifestyle that is not responsible, dignified and beautiful.”

In 2017, a group of “LGBT Catholics” wrote to the Archbishop of Prague to request special pastoral care for their community. Duka replied to the group, saying:

I do not see a mandate for categorical chaplaincy or pastoral care as realistic for the following reason: we provide categorical pastoral care, that is, military chaplains, prison chaplains, hospital chaplains, and chaplains participating in the Olympic Games. However, these are always closed communities who have no other possibility to participate in the service and to seek spiritual help.

Members of the Logos Movement and LGBT Catholics rightly consider themselves full citizens of the Czech Republic and Catholic Christians, and are therefore open to all services, while maintaining the basic conditions required by Christian ethics and the norms of canon law.

In this spirit, our hearts and the doors of our churches are always open.

In 2019, Cardinal Duka publicly backed two Polish archbishops who were being attacked for their views on “the LGBT ideology” and pride marches that were taking place in Poland that year. The attacks, Duka said, bear witness to “totalitarianism” that “infringes the freedom of those people who hold different views.”

He added that he perceived “as ominous” the fact that the “LGBT ideology is now starting to include atheist and satanist agenda,” and therefore it must be “thoroughly rejected.”

“The renewal of politics can be achieved only by restoring [its] relationship to truth” and it begins with the family, Duka said.¹¹In a 2018 interview, he said: “Only in the family will we learn solidarity, subsidiarity, relation to truth. But in what state are our families today? What will [we hand on to] the new generation? If the family is not the foundation of our society, but, on the contrary, the mentality of individualism, it cannot go well. It is a violation of the person’s identity and personality. It destroys [society], when everyone promotes only himself and his rights. It will distort political life.”

Migration

When Duka celebrated Mass on the feast day of St. Wenceslas, patron saint of the Czech Republic, in 2017, he drew much attention for one of his intercessions: “We pray for refugees and migrants. May they have the strength to return to the lands of their fathers; may they become a new hope for their nations and rebuild their cities, where they may live in peace.”

Some critics viewed this intercessory prayer (in combination with his homily) as an exhibition of excessive nationalism and a rejection of migrants, but Duka explained that the European refugee crisis is “merely a consequence of unsolved problems.”

“The current reception of refugees requires, on the basis of historical experience, not a multicultural approach but a way of inculturation that respects human dignity as well as the rights and traditions of host countries,” Duka said.

He has also criticized “momentary solutions to the problem that proved not to be useful — for example, those of 2015 Europe or UN debates.” He said peacekeeping forces should be employed to restore peace to regions where the clashes are taking place and from which the migrants come. “It is not possible to take everybody in; it would lead to the collapse of Europe,” he warned.

In the Cardinal’s view it is as “extremist and irresponsible to say, ‘not even one of them’ as it is to proclaim: ‘We can take everybody in.’” Duka urged people also to think of the monetary implications and the issue of integration. That is, he believes that migration policy must be accompanied by “vigilance. that “the right to the life and safety of our families and the citizens of this country is superior to other rights.”

Overall, Cardinal Duka has striven to take a compassionate and balanced approach to migration, acknowledging security risks and the valuable role the Church has in providing support. He has stressed the importance of rebuilding state administrations in conflict-affected regions to address the root causes of migration. Duka has also criticized the short-term immigration policies of countries like France, Germany, and the UK, suggesting that they have been inadequate.

Islam

Duka has tried to avoid the often-linked issues of migration and fear of Islam. In a 2017 interview with Echo Weekly Journal, the interviewer said it looked as if Duka was building up to the conclusion that we must stop the Muslim migrant wave into Europe but stopped short of actually saying it. Duka responded: “You’re right, but I will quote you a Church Father: ‘I’m a man, I’m a Christian, I’m a Catholic.’ This means that all people have a common ground that should allow us to accept the other and not make him an enemy. Therefore, I say: If we take in the migrants, we must insist on our rules.”

In the same interview, Duka noted that, “While Islam is also monotheistic, we differ with its conception of God. Islam does not know what Christianity knows, that is, the division and autonomy of the spiritual and civil spheres. . . . Protests often take place with weapons in hand. [Immigrants] must be clearly given the principles, and we must really talk to those who come. There is fear in Western societies.”

Related to the topic of Christian ethics is the fact that world peace is “threatened by terrorist attacks in European countries,” which was discussed by Duka in his 2016 new year’s message. Duka also cited Pope Francis, who said in an interview for La Croix: “We must admit there are some violent tendencies in Islam.” Duka added, “Of course, there are tendencies to interpret Islam in a modern view, but Badal is essentially right. ¹²Fr. Milan Badal was Duka’s secretary until his death in March 2019. Badal claimed that we cannot distinguish between Islam and Islamism and that Islam is radical as such. He claimed that Muslims’ inner duty is to outnumber Christians and proclaim their laws everywhere. See Simao, “Duka’s Personal Secretary Died; Priest Badal Criticized Islam and Worked in the Council of CT,” Blesk.cz, 24 March 2019, www.blesk.cz (translated from Czech). What are we waiting for? Why does nobody say that there are almost twenty Surahs in Quran that are absolutely intolerant and militant? Fourteen centuries of Quran with a history of heavy fighting.”

Duka has nonetheless spoken forcefully about the tension between Islam and European democracy, even quoting Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, who — when answering a question about whether we need to be worried about more Muslims in Europe — said about Muslims that “as long as there are 5 percent in society, there are no problems. When they are 15 percent, they will come up with demands that they want to occupy certain key places in society with their people. And as soon as they reach 25 percent, they will enforce Sharia law and seek to take over government.”

Religious Education

Duka continues to stress the importance of religious education and teaching, to counteract the moral state of society. He made a major contribution to translating the Jerusalem Bible into Czech. As chairman of the Catholic Biblical Federation, Duka tries to contribute to the potential to evangelize contemporary European culture through, for example, innovative Bible studies aiming to provide a proper understanding of Holy Scripture for all those interested in reading the Bible.

DUKA AND POLITICS

Duka’s ability to get along with Czech politicians, including some whom he knew during communist rule and who were (in a sense) accomplices to his imprisonment, spurred much critical discussion when his appointment as archbishop of Prague and primate of Bohemia became public.

Duka has stated that, as archbishop, he has to play a more political role and has to deal sometimes more with “political” issues than episcopal duties. In one of his interviews, Duka compared his function to being a church clerk and stated that he envied his auxiliary bishops for really being able to perform episcopal pastoral work. His political gifts have at least been put to good use in addressing three large tasks presented to him when he became archbishop: the property settlement between the state and the Church, arranging an international treaty between the Czech Republic and the Vatican, and finding a solution for the controversial ownership of St. Vitus Cathedral. ¹³The cathedral remains under state ownership for now but the Church still has the option to appeal the latest court decision. The dispute is not fully resolved, as the court’s verdict will not come into effect immediately due to the possibility of an appeal

Duka is on a first-name basis with a number of influential politicians (including the Czech presidents) and has the ability to think out of the box and come up with solutions that are not only acceptable, but even beneficial, to all parties involved. These traits have helped Duka with two issues thus far. Just months after becoming archbishop, he managed to agree on a potential resolution regarding St. Vitus Cathedral. This solution — as the declaration regarding its care states — builds “on the common belief that the cathedral . . . is a national spiritual, cultural, and state symbol and is led by the intention to create a permanent foundation for the development of good relations between the state and the Church.” Duka said in this regard: “I believe that the agreement of the president of the Republic and the Prague archbishop [joint care for the cathedral by state and church] is an expression of our common will to ensure reliable and harmonious mutual cooperation in the care of the cathedral and its preservation for future generations.”

Regarding Church restitutions after confiscation by the communists (the Czech government agreed in 2012 to a compensation plan over thirty years), Duka has indicated that he agrees that “what was stolen is to be returned,” and he knows that “according to the Constitutional Court’s finding, the churches could defend themselves in court”; but he believed this course of action “would not benefit anyone.” Instead, Duka opted for the diplomatic route and came up with a framework for the gradual implementation of restitution, thereby ushering in a new period for the Church in the Czech Republic.

As to the unresolved matter: the Czech Republic is one of the last European countries not to have a concordat with the Vatican.

Regarding politics and the Church, Duka has said in an interview that “churches cannot play the role of political parties.” He said he could “understand that every one of us, when he is interested in the life of society, which is right, has to say some things. But we must be very careful not to divide society.” Media coverage, he said, “is looking for conflict and contrast because then people are interested.”

Duka has said he believes his role is “to respect everyone in the Church and not to split it.” He explained his attitude by saying: “You will not gain a person for the good if you beat him. As a Church leader, I consider it necessary to be wherever something positive is happening or where a certain opinion needs to be said. But I do not consider the Church to replace the role of critical media and political parties.”

This attitude comes to the fore in another quote from Duka in which he states that “whoever leaves you, even if you cannot help him, must not leave sadly and without encouragement. And when you speak to a priest, you must never let the priest be offended by you. You can reproach him rightly but never offend him. This principle should apply not only in the Church but also in family and society.”

As Duka said in an interview: “We must create an environment of cooperation in the spirit of the service of society. It is, above all, a spiritual ministry, but the Church speaks not only of the salvation of souls but also of the salvation of man. Hand in hand with the form of worship and proclamation of the gospel goes charity! We are supposed to help society in this area especially where the state cannot do so well.”

• 1
  Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., Úvod do Písma sv. Starého zákona (Prague: Editio Sti Aegidii, 1992)
• 2
  Duka, Úvod do Písma.
• 3
  Winfried Aymans, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family: Essays from a Pastoral Viewpoint (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015).
• 4
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 5
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 6
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 7
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 8
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 9
  Aymans, Eleven Cardinals.
• 10
  “I would like to draw attention to a document that refutes the now frequently repeated (and misguided) argument that ‘marriage for all is fair,’ that this is only a minor adjustment that will not hurt anyone but will help others, or that children with parents of the same sex will be just as fine (or perhaps even better) than in classic families or institutions (the myth of orphanages full of unhappy children is very well refuted by Tomáš Zdechovský on his blog, https://zdechovsky.blog.idnes.cz/blog.aspx?c=672899).” Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., Facebook, 6 December 2018, www.facebook.com/dominik.duka.3/posts/2544734515567216. See also Dominik Cardinal Duka, O.P., “Full Development in Marriage.” The Church “defends the biological function of the family.”
• 11
  In a 2018 interview, he said: “Only in the family will we learn solidarity, subsidiarity, relation to truth. But in what state are our families today? What will [we hand on to] the new generation? If the family is not the foundation of our society, but, on the contrary, the mentality of individualism, it cannot go well. It is a violation of the person’s identity and personality. It destroys [society], when everyone promotes only himself and his rights. It will distort political life.”
• 12
  Fr. Milan Badal was Duka’s secretary until his death in March 2019. Badal claimed that we cannot distinguish between Islam and Islamism and that Islam is radical as such. He claimed that Muslims’ inner duty is to outnumber Christians and proclaim their laws everywhere. See Simao, “Duka’s Personal Secretary Died; Priest Badal Criticized Islam and Worked in the Council of CT,” Blesk.cz, 24 March 2019, www.blesk.cz (translated from Czech).
• 13
  The cathedral remains under state ownership for now but the Church still has the option to appeal the latest court decision. The dispute is not fully resolved, as the court’s verdict will not come into effect immediately due to the possibility of an appeal