Lay people in the Czech Catholic Church between 1948 and 1989 from the point of view of the latest Church history
Abstract
The article gives an overview of the situation of the Czech Catholic lay people in the period of the socialist totalitarian regime between the years 1948 and 1989. Because of the situation of the Church, when a big number of the active clergy were either imprisoned, watched or persecuted by the communist regime, the lay people had to take over the responsibility for maintaining the Church life beyond the legal liturgical services.
Thanks to their engagement and active cooperation with the unofficial representatives of the Church and of the religious superiors it was possible to develop a far reaching activity and to make use of the outcomes of the 2nd Vatican Council. The article pays attention to different fields of their activity and characterizes what they brought to the life of the Church in Czechoslovakia of that time as well as a critical view of the change of the situation in the Church after 1989.