110 JAMES RAMON FELAK
In keeping with the significant changes taking place in the
Communist regime as it launched its “Socialism with a Human
Face” project, the government was substantially accommodating
to many—though not all—Catholic demands. The Action Program
issued in April by the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Czechoslovakia, in calling for the “implementation of the con-
stitutional freedoms of assembly and association” for voluntary
social organizations, specified, “Freedoms guaranteed by law are
applicable... to citizens of individual creeds and religious denomi-
nations.” 17
As a concrete sign that the regime was taking its own rhetoric
seriously, personnel changes ensued in the government offices re-
sponsible for policy toward the churches. On March 25, 1968, the
sociologist Erika Kadlecová, a Communist with a reputation for a
willingness to accommodate religion, replaced the old-school Karl
Hrůza as head of the Secretariat for Church Affairs at the Minis-
try of Culture.18 Less than two weeks later, on April 5, the min-
ister of culture himself, Karl Hoffman, was replaced by Miroslav
Galuška.
Over the course of the next several months, the height of the
Czechoslovak reform era, the regime made a number of conces-
sions to the Church. Some formerly interned bishops were al-
lowed to take up their offices; female religious orders were allowed
to accept novices and resume some of their activities; the MHKD
was dissolved; the Catholic charitable organization Caritas was re-
established; the Catholic press was revived; and religious instruc-
tion was revitalized.19 In addition, the Greek Catholic Church was
- “The Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia,” in
Czechoslovakia’s Blueprint for “Freedom”: Dubček’s “Unity, Socialism and Humanity”
(Statements—The Original and Official Documents Leading to the Conflict of August,
1968), ed. Paul Ello (Washington, D.C.: Acropolis, 1968), 120. - Balík and Hanuš, Katolická církev v Československu, 44.
- Tomášek replaced the editorial board of the newspaper Katolické Noviny,
dominated until then by pro-regime clergy, and its circulation increased from
35,000 to 135,000; see Svoboda, Na strane ̆ národa, 66, 72.