“Just a kind of memory loss. So, I am very grateful that the memory can be stored and processed in this way. It is, someone also talked about it on the radio, that it is simply human, and it is a natural tendency, it does not only apply to the communist past, it simply embellishes those things. As he said, I think it was Daniel Raus, such a short reflection, the eraser and crayon method. He erases what was painful, and beautifies what was not colourful or grey. I think there is a problem with this. Difficulties and problems are always there. We know from the point of view or in the light of the Bible that man will have no paradise in this world.
"There, Mr. Vít Tajovský, the abbot from the Želiv monastery, was active in the region of Havlíčkův Brod as a very charismatic personality who appealed to people. He was a long-time political prisoner and such a very humble and quiet person, and by that time he was quite old. He came out of that silence like this and was able to reach many people and direct them in the right way to really focus the revolutionary enthusiasm in a creative way, so that it is not just demolition, but to realize that they are taking responsibility for life in society."
"Especially in the 1980s, when I was studying, the selection of teachers was already very narrow, because those who were really high-quality and highly educated and prepared, and who did not want to compromise with the regime and made it more or less obvious, so during the 1970s they basically had to gradually leave. Because, and this is a well-known fact, during communism, every priest in every small parish, in order to be able to work publicly, had to have not only the authority of blood in the form of ordination and jurisdictions, but also state approval."
Doc. Jaroslav Brož, Th.D, S.S.L., was born on February 22, 1963 in Náchod, where he grew up together with his six siblings. He was raised in the faith from an early age. After graduating from the Trutnov grammar school in 1981, he, like his three brothers, decided to study theology and dedicate his life to priestly service. He started his studies in 1981, in the years 1983-1985 he had to complete his basic military service with the engineer battalion. He finished his studies at the Cyril Methodist Faculty of Theology in 1988 and was ordained on June 25, 1988. During his studies, he experienced state police’s attempts to obtain informants among theology students. However, he himself passed through their offers during the interrogation by remaining silent. In the years 1988-1993 he performed pastoral priestly service in the Hradec Králové Diocese. Since 1990, he has been working at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. In the years 1994-1997 he studied in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, in 2000 he received the title of doctor of theology in Prague. Doc. Jaroslav Brož is currently the vice-dean of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague.
