Slovak bishops to vet priests after claims of communist collaboration

Published: 2005-03-11

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in Slovakia will vet their priests after new claims that clergy who acted as agents for the former communist regime are still active. Father Marian Gavenda, spokesman for the Bratislava-based Slovak bishops' conference, told Catholic News Service March 7 that, although the church said it would require an "explanation and atonement" from priest-collaborators, bishops also would interview priests from their dioceses after demands for more "concrete steps." "Although most real collaborators are no longer in pastoral work here, society is sensitive to this issue," he said. "We decided that each bishop should speak personally to priests working for him, to identify possible collaborators." Around 10 percent of priests in the then-Czechoslovakia are believed to have been agents and informers under communist rule, which lasted from 1948 to 1989. From 1965 to 1989, the plainclothes StB police force monitored any activity considered anti-state or anti-communist.

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