The Czechoslovak Bishops' Conference ( cs, Československá biskupská konference), known after 1990 as the Bishops' Conference of Czechoslovakia, was an

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, sometimes called a conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The first assembly of bishops to ...

made up of the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

bishops in former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

before 1950 and from 1990 until the division of that country in 1993.

History

As an informal body with no strictly defined powers, the conference met until 1950, when its activities were paralyzed by internment of most bishops. The State Agency for Religious Affairs started to organize conferences of capitular vicars-general, the first of which was convened on the 15 February 1951. The policy was released in March 1968, and efforts were undertaken to resume the episcopal conference, but because of the invasion by

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

troops during August 1968, the conference failed to resume its activities. As the role of bishops increased due to returning of some internees to their duties as ordinaries of dioceses in this period, the communist régime aiming at "

normalization Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside of ...

" in the 1970s sought to prevent a functional episcopal conference that would mean a closer collaboration of the bishops.

Re-establishment in 1990

As a legal person within the meaning of the

Code of Canon Law of 1983 The 1983 ''Code of Canon Law'' (abbreviated 1983 CIC from its Latin title ''Codex Iuris Canonici''), also called the Johanno-Pauline Code, is the "fundamental body of ecclesiastical laws for the Latin Church". It is the second and current comp ...

, the body was established under the name of Bishops' Conference of Czechoslovakia only in the spring of 1990 (according to some sources, on April 17, others May 14). Its first chairman was elected

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, ...

František Tomášek František Tomášek (30 June 1899, in Studénka, Moravia – 4 August 1992, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in Bohemia, the 34th Archbishop of Prague, and a Roman Catholic theologian. His "cautious b ...

. It consisted of two independently acting Bishops' Colleges: the Bohemian-Moravian (Chairman :cs:Francis Radkovský) and the Slovak (Chairman

Eduard Kojnok Eduard Kojnok (14 August 1933 in Hrnčiarska Ves, Veľká Suchá – 27 October 2011 in Rožňava) was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rožňava, Slovakia. Ordained to the priesthood in 1956, Kojnok became bishop of the ...

). The Bishops' Conference of Czechoslovakia also became an associate member of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Czechoslovakia, where the bishops' conference at the discretion of

Tomasek was represented primarily by the former Vicar General of

Archdiocese of Prague The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Prague (Praha) ( cs, Arcidiecéze pražská, la, Archidioecesis Pragensis) is a Metropolitan Catholic archdiocese of the Latin Rite in Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. The cathedral archiepiscopal see is St. V ...

Antonín Liška Antonín Liška (17 September 1924, Bohumilice – 15 October 2003, České Budějovice) was a Czech Catholic clergyman. From 1991 to 2002 he was the bishop of České Budějovice A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a ...

. After the disintegration of Czechoslovakia in 1993, in the two newly independent states two Bishops' Conferences were established: the

Czech Bishops' Conference The Czech Bishops' Conference () is the standing conference of the Catholic bishops of the Czech Republic. Based in Prague, the CBC represents the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, both in Bohemian and Moravian provinces of the Roman Catholi ...

and the

Conference of Slovak Bishops The Conference of Bishops of Slovakia (Konferencia biskupov Slovenska) (KBS), was established on 23 March 1993, and is composed of the Catholic Bishops Roman Catholic in the Slovak Republic. Slovak Greek Catholic (Byzantine Rite) are not members o ...

References

{{Authority control Defunct episcopal conferences Catholic Church in the Czech Republic Catholic Church in Slovakia

History

Re-establishment in 1990

See also

References