104 JAMES RAMON FELAK
ceses—including Prague—were without a bishop or even an apos-
tolic administrator. The regime asserted its influence in the dioc-
esan offices through state-appointed Church secretaries (církevní
tajemníci), who controlled the administration of the dioceses—an
arrangement opposed by the Church—and through those priests
who joined the pro-Communist organization for clergy, the
Mírové Hnutí Katolického Duchovenstva (MHKD, Peace Move-
ment of Catholic Clergy). The government wanted such priests,
especially those currently serving as vicars capitular, to become
the new bishops of the vacant dioceses, something the Church
stubbornly resisted.8
The talks bore some fruit right from the start. In 1963, im-
prisoned and interned bishops were released. The loyalty oath
was modified to make it more palatable to the Church, and most
imprisoned priests received amnesties; many even received per-
mission to return to active service. On the other hand, there was
little or no movement to accommodate Church concerns with
respect to state control of seminary education, the return of re-
ligious instruction to schools, or the appointment of bishops to
vacant dioceses.
In the most prominent issue on the table, what to do about
the archdiocese of Prague, a compromise was reached. Josef Be-
ran, deposed as archbishop by the regime, imprisoned in 1949,
and recently made a cardinal by Paul VI, was allowed to travel to
Rome to be inducted as cardinal, provided that he did not return
to Czechoslovakia. In a related compromise, the regime approved
his replacement, Josef Tomášek, but only as an apostolic admin-
istrator—not (yet) an ordinary bishop.
Tomášek was also the only Czech prelate whom the regime
allowed to attend Vatican II, along with three Slovak bishops
- A vicar capitular was a priest chosen by the local cathedral chapter to admin-
ister a diocese in which there was a vacancy for the position of bishop. In Czecho-
slovakia, some vicars capitular, though not all, were in the collaborationist camp.