VATICAN II AND CZECHOSLOVAKIA 109renewal of male and female religious orders and amends for the
harm done to them; restoration of the Greek Catholic Church to
legal existence; permission of the unhindered religious education
of children; and the enabling of the Church to exercise its con-
stitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech, of the press, and
of assembly.15 The petition also called for the dissolution of the
MHKD, given its complete lack of moral and legal justification
to speak for the Church. Its authors noted that the organization,
discredited from the start, was a product of the repressive poli-
cies of the 1950s and now an anachronism, lingering on as one of
the greatest obstacles to mutual understanding between church
and state.
The barrage of Catholic demands continued. On March 25,
Tomášek presented to the government a letter outlining the bish-
ops’ proposals with respect to relations between church and state.
They called for the opening of discussions between Czechoslova-
kia and the Holy See that would lead to an agreement on mutual
relations (that is, a concordat) and the institution of a number
of domestic reforms. These included the restoration of open com-
munication with the Holy See; the filling of vacant dioceses; the
reactivation of the bishops’ conference; freedom for bishops to
exercise their functions to the fullest degree; the subordination
of priests only to their bishops and not to state functionaries;
permission for lay participation in all aspects of the life of the
Church; the restoration of the life of the religious orders; the re-
newal of the Greek Catholic Church; the freedom of religious edu-
cation inside and outside of school; free access to the press, radio,
and television; and the freedom to carry out pastoral work in hos-
pitals, prisons, and social welfare institutions.16
- The Greek Catholics, also known as Eastern Rite Catholics, Byzantine Cath-
olics, or—pejoratively—Uniates, are a semi-autonomous community within the
greater Catholic Church that adheres to many of the traditions of Eastern Christian-
ity while remaining in communion with the pope. - For a list of these demands, see Svoboda, Na straně národa, 65.