Internment of Bishops Josef Hlouch and Karel Skoupý during Communism

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Pedagogická fakulta Katedra dějin a didaktiky dějepisu DISERTAČNÍ PRÁCE Internment of Bishops Josef Hlouch and Karel Skoupý during Communism ABSTRACT: The dissertation deals with the internment of the Roman Catholic Church Bishops Josef Hlouch and Karel Skoupý during the Communist Regime in Czechoslovakia in 1949 -1968. The work initially presents effort of the post-coup Communist government to transform the Roman Catholic Church into the national church, subordinated to the state, and unsuccessful negotiations of government representatives with bishops. The main part of the dissertation deals with the internment of Bishops on the example of Bishop Josef Hlouch of České Budějovice and Bishop Karel Skoupý of Brno. Both were first detained in their residences and later transported outside the diocese and for many years interned in secret buildings, supervised by State Security. The aim and purpose of this dissertation is to present coherently the internment of the Bishops in those buildings. The work's main resources are archival materials and testimony of witnesses. Those are the base to describe the Bishops' daily life in the internment and its organization. Another aim is to show the impact that the bishops' isolation had on the Roman Catholic Church. This result is the effort to..