News
from the Church Law Society
25
– 2/2003
The prestigious
award of the Karlovarské právnické dny for the best specialized legal magazine
published in the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic in 2002 This year, The Church Law Review won the third place
in the overall rating with the total sum of 146 points.
Visit at the
Chapter of Vyšehrad
August 18, 2003. The CLS president and the secretary visited the St
Peter and Paul Royal College Chapter of Vyšehrad. They were welcome by the
Chapter’s superior, provost A. R. D. Antonín Doležal, our society’s
member and legal counselor of the Chapter JUDr. Jan Kotous was also
present. He is a vocational assistant at the Department of Labor Law and Social
Security Law of the Charles University College of Law. The Chapter’s dean, R.
D. ThDr. Jiří Huber, was also present at the welcoming. The CLS
representation visited the library, being taken care of by canon P. František
Verner OCr. They listened to his very interesting speech on cataloging he
had completed in many a church library during his fructuous life. Especially
interesting was the presentation of searches in the latest catalog of the
Vyšehrad Chapter Library regarding petty articles.
Further on, the CLS representation
visited the Chapter building, at the newly erected memorial in the Vyšehrad
Cemetery they honored the memory of priests and ordinaries tortured to death
during Nazism and Communism, and finally, in the St Peter and Paul Basilica,
they listened to a detail speech of the hosts regarding the history of the
chapter dome.
They also glanced at
the publishing activity of the Chapter and expressed their appreciation for
support the Chapter gives the Church Law Revue. The publishing activity
includes the most famous Czech theology magazine, the monthly-published
Theological Texts, being famous already in the era of secret publishing during
the Communism. It was established and nowadays still directed by a famous
prisoner of conscience (once sentenced to lifetime) Mons. ThDr. Oto Mádr,
nowadays a non-resident canon of this chapter.
Congratulations
May 20, 2003. R.D. Josef Šťastný, parish priest of Blovice,
and a member to our Society, graduated from his canon law studies at the
Catholic University of Lublin, where he graduated with the degree of Master of
Canon Law. June 1, 2003. The
55th birthday of our honorary member, R.D. Prof. ThDr. PhDr. Tomáš Halík,
professor of the Charles University College of Philosophy, the president of the
Czech Christian Academy, and the rector of the student church of the
Sanctissimus Savior of Prague. June 20, 2003. Also the 55th birthday,
now our member R.D. ThDr. Ing. Miloš Raban, lecturer of Religions and
Philosophy at the Technical University of Liberec, the director of The
International Center for Spiritual Recovery in Hejnice, parish of Raspenava and
Hejnice. Between 1996–2003 he was the secretary of the preparatory committee to
the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. June 25, 2003. Stanislav Hykyš,
the Society’s and Institute for State Ecclesiastical Law’s member, graduated
from the Charles University College of Law. At a festival graduation he
received the degree of Master of Law. July
8, 2003. Our Society’s member, R.D. ICDr. Marián Feduš, Ph.D.,
received the degree of Doctor of Education at a festival graduation in the
grand hall of the Ružomberok Catholic University College of Education July
10, 2003. The vice-chair and
founding member of the CLS, Ing. Jana Mindlová, CSc., the secretary to the
Psychotherapy Section of the Czech Christian Academy, a counselor of the
Ordinary Congregation of the Merciful Sisters of St Charles Boromeo in Prague,
celebrated a significant life jubilee. October 30,
New Advocats of the Interdiocesan Court in Prague
By the decree of
Miloslav Cardinal Vlk, the Catholic Archbishop to Prague, and the moderator of
the Interdiocesan Court of the Bohemian Church Province, effective as of July 15,
2003, for the period of five years, nineteen new advocates were appointed. Among
these there are three members of the Society: R.D. Mgr. Jiří Čepl from
Kasejovice, Petr Obdržálek from Průhonice, having graduated from Church
Law at the Charles university College of Law, and JUDr. Ivan Vávra from
Prague 2.
Wedding
Congratulations
July 11,
August 2,
August 30,
Deceases
June 27, 2003.
We regretted the announcement of decease of the honorary member to our Society
and the member to its work committee between 1995 and 1998, the emeritus synod
warden of the Evangelic Church of Czech Brethren, JUDr. Pavel Šimek.
(jrt/zh)
News
from the world
25
– 2/2003
The House of
Representatives of the Parliament of the Czech Republic consented on a proposal
to reject the ratification of the Treaty with the Holy See June 25,
2003. The House of Representatives of
the Parliament of the Czech Republic consented by its majority of 110 votes out
of 177 present MPs to reject the proposal of agreement on ratification of the
international Treaty between the Czech Republic and the Holy See, signed on
July 25. 2002.
Jubilee of the
Eastern Germany Anti-Communist Rise Anniversary June 12, 2003. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Prague held the 50th
Anniversary of the Folk Rise against the Communist Regime in the GDR (1953) colloquium, in the Senate of the
Parliament of the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, no news arrived
announcing commemoration of another similar event in our country this year, one
that would directly regard our nation and would also have its fiftieth
anniversary. Concurrently with the Berlin Rise in June 1953 there was the Plzeň
(Pilsen) Folk Rise against the monetary reform, by which the same regime robbed
a large part of the population in the then People’s Democratic Czechoslovakia
and which rise was also severely suppressed. Being lawyers, we are interested
in the legal ground of the unexpected and unprecedented monetary reform (still
a few days before then denied by the Cabinet) having been given by the then
legislative Act 41/1953 Col.
The Velehrad Plenary
Council
July 6–12, 2003. Velehrad experienced the first session of the Czech
particular council, called forth in compliance with the CIC 1983, by the Czech
Bishops’ Conference. The chair of the council is the Czech primate, the
metropolitan of Prague, archbishop PhDr. Miloslav Cardinal Vlk. The council
included 93 mem- bers of deciding or counseling vote plus eleven invited
experts. Among those were also our members Prof. ThDr. PhDr. Tomáš Halík,
ThLic. Damián Němec Th.D. OP, Doc. JUDr. ICLic. Antonín Ignác Hrdina,
OPraem., Doc. JUDr. Jiří Kejř, DrSc., and Doc. JUDr. Jiří Rajmund
Tretera OP.
Interesting Interview in
Svatá Hora Magazine
In No. 3/2003 of Svatá
Hora Magazine you can find an interview called ”Pilgrimage Site Must be
Classic“, in which P. Stanislav Přibyl CSsR, a famous redemptorist
preacher, a member to the Plenary Council of the Catholic Church in the Czech
Lands, asks our colleague and his namesake R. D. JCD JUDr. Stanislav Přibyl,
PhD, about his life experience (a few years ago they jointly received the
priestly ordination in the Prague Cathedral).
Appointment of New
Cardinals
September 28, 2003.
The Pope appointed a large number of
new cardinals in the public consistory. Among these there is a significant
friend of our Society, the metropolitan archbishop to Ostrigom-Budapest, the
primate of Hungary, Prof. Dr. Péter Erdő, rector of the Pázmány Catholic
University in Budapest, and a Church Law professor. As we reminded during his
appointment as a primate in December 2002, we gratefully remember his speech
during the II. International Church Law Conference held by our Society on the
grounds of the Charles University College of Law in September 1998. So did we
remember his hospitality at the conference by the International Consociation
for Supporting Canon Law Study held in Budapest in September 2001.
The Czech nation, too, got
another cardinal. This is Prof. Dr. Tomáš Špidlík SJ, famous expert in
Christian East Theology and a long-term spiritual of the Czech Papal College
Nepomucenum in Rome.
(jrt)