100 JAMES RAMON FELAK
would eschew a ghetto mentality, seeking to share “the joy and
hope, the grief and anguish of the men and women of our time.”2
From the perspective of the Vatican II reformers, after decades—
or even centuries—of a winter characterized by dogmatism, de-
fensiveness, clericalism, and traditionalism, the Church was expe-
riencing a long-overdue springtime.
But 1962 was also an important year in the history of the
Czechoslovak Communist Party—paradoxically, for quite similar
reasons. That year saw the first indications of reform that would
accelerate through mid-decade and culminate in the blossoming
of the so-called Prague Spring, an attempt by reform-minded
Czech and Slovak Communists to effect an aggiornamento in their
own movement, to create a “socialism with a human face.” Like
the Catholic Church, they, too, launched a comprehensive pro-
gram of reform in an effort to bring their party up to date. Pur-
suing a Communist version of ressourcement, they scraped away
the Stalinist accretions to Communist thought and policy of the
preceding generations and sought in Lenin and Marx—even the
younger Marx—a revitalization of Communist ideals.
As Vatican II did for the laity, Czechoslovakia’s reform Com-
munists sought a greater dignity and role for the citizenry. This
meant, above all, everyone outside the ranks of the Communist
Party of Czechoslovakia, cutting across broad strata of Czecho-
slovak society. Like the Council fathers, reform Communists were
open to new ideas, including those that came from outside the
system and its institutions. They sought a greater emphasis on
dialogue, both within the Communist Party and with those out-
side of it. The new emphasis in the party was less on hierarchy
and more on collegiality, again paralleling the aspirations of the
Council. Finally, as with Vatican II, Czechoslovakia’s reform was
- Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes, December 7, 1965, http://www.vati
can.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const19651207
gaudium-et-spes_en.html; accessed January 2, 2014.