VATICAN II AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA 105(of a total of fifteen consecrated bishops in the country). They
were accompanied by a dozen collaborationist clergy selected by
the government to keep an eye on the bishops—though the in-
formants’ success in this task was debatable.9 Czechoslovakia’s
Council fathers spoke little at Vatican II, though Tomášek ad-
dressed the assembly on the topic of Catholic-Orthodox unity
during the Second Session, proposing the creation of a special
assembly of Catholic and Orthodox bishops to prepare for future
unification of the churches.10 The speech was received favorably
by Orthodox observers from the Soviet Union and led to the
Russian Orthodox patriarch awarding the entire Czechoslovak
delegation with a commemorative medal for making the great-
est contribution toward the rapprochement of Christians at the
Council.11
Czech and Slovak participation at the Council was not limited
to the official delegation from Czechoslovakia. Three exiled bish-
ops, including Cardinal Beran, also took part. Despite the com-
promise settlement of the question of leadership of the Prague
archdiocese, the Beran issue remained an irritant in church-state
relations, especially because Beran spoke at the Council in ways
critical of Communist regimes. He took part in the debate over
the Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis huma-
nae), speaking out on September 20, 1965, in defense of freedom
of conscience. 12
His speech called for the Council to proclaim emphatically its
- Stanislav Balík, “The Second Vatican Council and the Czechoslovak State,” Re-
ligion, State and Society 41, no. 1 (2013): 10, 11. The entourage was impeded by being
housed apart from the bishops, either on a different floor or in a different building. - Ibid., 12.
- Tomášek’s speech also helped to get him appointed to the Vatican’s Sec-
retariat for the Unity of Christians: Bohumil Svoboda, Na straně národa: Kardinál
František Tomášek v zápase s komunistickým režimem (1965–1989) (Prague: Vyšehrad,
2006), 31. - Beran’s speech is quoted at length in Balík and Hanuš, Katolická církev v
Československu, 46.