STATUS OF THE CHURCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2009
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: August 11, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

007-'e-&-iLA- moo
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3
j
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SECRET
SECURITY 'INFORMATION
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia
PLACE ACQUIRED
Status of the Church
This Document contains ~Ijjj6t;Mg the *a,
tional Defense of the United 8tatps, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 7114, of the 17.8. Co{e, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its onnients
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
REPORT
DATE DISTR. 11 August 1953
NO. OF PAGES 8
REQUIREMENT NO. RD 25X1
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
Ile After February 1948,, the following churches existed in Slovakiat
a. Roman Catholic9
b. Greek Catholic9
co Russian Orthodox
d. Evangelical (according to the Augsburg Confesaion)F
(Not.r Washington Distribution Indicated By "X"; Field Distribution by ".#".)
25 YEAR RE-REVIEW)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3
SECRET/SECURITY INFORKATION
Bishops VOJTASSAK and BUZALKA o On 15 January 19519 both were
sentenced to life imprisonment. As of February 1952, Bisho BUZALKA
was confined in Leopoldov Prison in Leopoldov 827 l7477and Bishop
VOJTASSAK in Kartouzy Prison in Kartouzy C5502' 1523 70 Bishops LAZIK,
NECSEY, POBOZNY and CARSKY were placed under house arrest by the StB
in the summer of 1951 and were not allowed to leave their homes untUl
February 1952.
After Easter 1951, all monasteries in Slovakia were closed o f'his
included cloisters belonging to the Franciscans, Jesuits, Redemptor-
ists, Dominicans, Piarists, Brothers of the Christian Schools,
Brothers of Mercy, and Premonstrants o The Capuchin order was not
included in the ban at first, but Capuchin cloisters in Bratislava and
Pezinok were closed in March 1952, and the monks were taken to an
unknown destination..
.The closing of Slovakia's monasteries was, for the most part,
carried out at night.-when members of the SNB forced their-way into
monastery buildings. All those inside had to dress immediately and
get into trucks. They were not allowed to take any of their
perbonal belongings. All propert at the monasteries was confiscated.
In towns like Trnava and Sastin +838Nm1709E , for instance, the
monasteries were converted into office buildings, casernes, and places
for Communist youth activities.
The monks from the various cloisters were placed in cloisters. at
Pezinok 817N 1716; Benadik, Jasov Z98i1N-2.5979 and Beluaske
S1atinyo Those who did not want to cooperate with the regime,
.mainly Jesuits, were sent to Podolinee L*W9l6L 2O59E7, where they
.were-placed under heavy guard and put on a starvati on diet.
Ordained priests who did not accept the.. regime's' idea of church
subordination to the state were'interned in Muceniky, near Nitra,
where they were forced to attend political Indoctrination courses.
Those who accepted the idea'that the church must be subordinate to
the.state were released and allowed to return home; the rest were
taken to court in Bratislava, tried, and sentenced to long pr1aon
terms iriLeopoldov Prison in Leopoldov.
Those priests who were released were not allowed to return to the
parishes which they had formerly. served, As a result, many churches
had no priest at all. The Slovak State.:Office for Church. Affairs
sometimes assigned to a parish a priest who had been through the
indoctrination school and had accepted the doctrine of state doming
tion over the church.
SECRET
In the spring of 19509 the StB arrested
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION 25X1
?3-
10. Meanwhile, trials took place every days but one rarely heard of
verdicts es s and noth eared in the DOW.
papers
a group of priests rere appr+e
and-sentenced to 25 years at hard labor. Some were-sent to ruaait in
coal sines such an those at Handlova _=18 6
11. In early 1952, a large number of monks who had been confined at
Pedolireec were taken to Bohemia and placed in forced labor caps
in Ostrow 018L12577 near Karlovy vary, and Osek 5037N-1342near Duchc . Old and nick monks were placed in the pa town of
Belueske Slatiny on the Tah River in Slovakia, but were later all
assembled in Hronsky Svaty Benadik in central Slovakia.
12. In the gunner of 1951 all nuns were 2laced in camps, such as thosr~-
at Modra 857N 22O3E and Semerovo 8O1N-1821E~. In the spring of
1952, these nuns were transported to work in plants in Bohemia and
Silesia, e.g., the textile mills near Sumperk 9958N-1658.&7. Most of
then s working in hospitals were allowed to continue in their work.
two hospitals where the nuns were removed;
ese were a order insurance hospital in Bratislava and the
hospital in Vysne Hagy. Many of the nuns continued their religious,
and social welfare functions in civilian dress ira} order not 'to be
recognised.
13. All seminaries for the training of priests were closed. Only'ons
theological school was left open in Bratislava and only those
professors who cooperated with the regime were allowed to resin sty
faculty uembers. As a result very few theolo" students at ed
the school
25X1
14, In the spring of 1951 all Catholic orphanages and old people's
homes were taken over by the state and their properties confiscatet.
All church properties and lands were taken over by the state., All
Catholic schools had been taken over by the state in 1945.
15. A special State Office for Church Affairs (Urad pro veci cirkevni)
was created in the spring of 1948 to handle all Church matters. It
was under the direction of Minister Zdenek FIERLIJOER, in Prague.
The Office for'Church Affairs for Slovakia was set up under Ladislscv
HOLDOS. He has been under arrest since 1951, however, and was:
replaced by Stefan GAZ K f prison guard at the Regional Court
in Bratislava. Note: As a result of the recent - 25X1
reshuffling of vernme' nj; FIERLINGER is no longer head.
of the Office, which has been placed directly under the nine-man
Praesidiua
16. The Slovak Office for Church Affairs had a representative in each
diocese headquarters and there were.always it least two StB men in
the office of each bishop. The bishop was escorted by StB men wherever
he went. All visitors and correspondence had to be screened by. the!
representative of the Office-for-Church Affairs. Any meeting' of
bishops or high church offic.'ials had to be attended by an official of
the,Office for Church Affairs. The assignment of priests, church
celebrations, and processions could'take place only with the
pernissron of the Office for Church Affairs.
SECRET
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
SECRET/SECURITY INFOR)IATION 25X1
17a Upon the death of Bishop Dr. Andre] SKRABIK, of the Banska Bystrica
diocese, the Office for Church Affairs appointed a priest,.-Father
(fnu) DECHET of Ivanka Z4811N-17167 administrator. He was elected
capitular vicar by the canons of the Banska Bystrica diocese and ran
the diocese with an iron hand. Those who dared to oppose him were
arrested. The Slovak Office for Church Affairs also appointed their
own capitular vicars to the following dioceses: Trnava -- Dr. Leopold
ADAMCIK; Nitra _- Dr. (fnu) BEND; S isska Nova Ves -- (fnu)
SCHAEFFER,- Roznava Zoltan BELAK;
18. The Office for Church Affairs named as canons those priests who best
suited their Communist purposes and would beat obey them, often over
the bitter protest of the bishops concerned. For example, those
named as canons in the Trnava diocese were so-called npatriot priests';
some were not even Slovaks, e.a.n the Hungarians
19. The Slovak pee religious. Churches were still filled
to overflowing most recently by people from the working
classes. The peep e a no faith or confidence in the "patriot
priests". The population openly and physically protested the arrest
of their priests. For example, in the village of Dolma Krupa 29N-
1733 in 1951, there were actual exchanges of gunfire between the
population and the SNB; one citizen was killed and two SNB men were
wounded. Many people were arrested and sentenced to long prison
terms as a result of this skirmish.
20. Religious instruction was seldom given in the middle schools, but
young people attended church services in large numbers in the early
morning before school. Religious services were sometimes conducted.
among youth groups by intelligent, young people,and by former
Catholic scouts. The whole religious and church life was centered
around the family, however. Almost all the families in Slovakia
were bound together by a deep religious feeling, and the religious
training acquired within the family had much to do with a child e s
future behavior.
21. There is no doubt that the strongest. opponents to Communism were the
peasants and farmers In small towns and villages. They have been the
most stalwart in defying Communism, and have been the victims of
ruthless police organs. The guns of Communism were turned upon the
peasants and farmers after the rest of the country was firmly under
control, because the Communists knew that these people would-be the
hardest to convert, chiefly because of their strong religious
convictions.
SECRET
25X1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
-7-
30.
31.
32. After the Communists came to power in 19+8, they seized the oppor-
tunity to abolish the Greek catholic Church. On,28 April 1950, a
specially hired mob broke into the bishop's palace. and urged the
bishop to join the Orthodox Church.- The bishop refused, "whereupon
kre was seized and imprisoned. On 15 January 1951, in Bratislava, ke
was sentenced to life imprisonment in Leopoldov Prison, and the
government simultaneously outlawed the Greek-Catholic Church.
Bishop GOJDIC was still in Leopoldov Prison in February 1952. Those
priests who were not willing to join the Orthodox Church, including.'
suffragan Bishop HOPKO were confined in an old castle in the
village of Hlohovec 626N-1748E near Leopoldov in the western part
of Slovakia. During the Spring of 1952, many of the priests
33.
34.
SECRET
25X1
25X1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-00810A002000010005-3
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3
1
SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
-8-
35. After the establishment of the independent Orthodox Church, Greek-
Catholics who'belonged to the intelligentsia and held important state
positions were dismissed and dent to perform physical work in industry.
The Orthodox Church was striving for the complete Russianization of
eastern Slovakia, and was thus serving old-style Russian. imperialism.
The greatest.threat to the eastern portion of Slovakia was that the
USSR might choose to annex that section, which is something 'Rus5.ia
wanted to do even before World War I.
The Evangelical C hurch
360
L
37. eadin Slovak Co nists were recruited from the ranks of the
angelioal ,; ntelligenteia4~.arge , umbers of whom gpre cooperating
with the Commutate re ime Some thane no u4e V ad ,m3,r
~,~vNela HO VATH, Julius H?I ATH
Dr. aniel O ddi ~s aDr Andre j PAVLIK, Miohal HORVATH, Ingr. broslav
CHROAH, Jan S 'RA Milan LAJOXAK univsr professors Dr. DiOnyz
BLAZKOVIC, Dr. Ivan STANEK, Dr. Josef CERNA A. and -Dr..?re j MRAZ,
Minister-in-94 e,r a of Information Pavel ` LOKOO, Dr. Jars POHIg4N8
Michal POV a Andre, BAGAR, Dr. Ivi an KUSY, Marggrta FIc ULI, and
Zorn' LB , chairman of the women's organization, ZivenaM. But
despite tie large` xa bars of Communists, the overwhelming majority
of Evangelical MUr members, including the priests, were' strongly
opposed to the Communist regime. Many were sentenced to long terms
in jails and labor camps.
38. The Communist regime did not foresee strong opposition from the
Evangelical Church, and therefore did not take the ruthless measures
against it that it-did ' in the case of the other churches, most
probably because the head of the Evangelical Church was not in
another country, such as the Pope in Rome, and was therefore more
"controllable".
40. Other religions than those mentioned, including Jehovah's Witnesses
and,Seventh Day Adventists, were banned in'Slovakia.
SECRET
25X1
25X1
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/06: CIA-RDP80-0081OA002000010005-3