After the fall of the Communist regime, communities are reviving” “
“In Slovakia the parish has always been an important spiritual and cultural centre. This is helped by the fact that the territory is divided into many small communities with close-knit civil communities. Parish priest and mayor were two authorities respected by everyone. In past centuries, moreover, seminarians, in large part from poor families, studied in the best universities of the time – Vienna, Budapest, Innsbruck, Rome. On their return home, they also became promoters of social and cultural life. Many great personalities of Slovak history, art and literature were members of the clergy. That era is now only a distant memory. But today, after the fall of the Communist regime, Slovak parishes are slowly raising their head again”. Marian Gavenda , spokesman of the Slovak Episcopal Conference, explains how. Underground parishes. “The violent control and harsh restrictions imposed by the Communist atheist regime on all religious activities caused the collapse of parish life throughout Slovakia – recalls Msgr. Gavenda. Almost all the dioceses were for many years deprived of their bishops. The administration of the sacraments and any other parish activity were banned. Everything was done in a ‘clandestine’ way. The parishes developed parallel structures such as spiritual retreats in the mountains and church events far from indiscreet eyes”. Urban areas without churches. “To contribute to the loss of the sense of belonging to the parish explains Gavenda was also the period of emigration from the land to the city, a period that coincided with the development of the huge housing estates on the outskirts of the big cities. They were built without churches. The faithful were forced to come into the centre of town to go to church. That’s hardly ever the same thing. The spirit of the parish community has almost entirely disappeared. Esteem for the priest has also declined. Indeed the priest enjoyed higher esteem under Communism, because people admired his courageous attitude to the regime”. Beginning again from zero. 1989, with the fall of the Berlin wall, represents a kind of year zero for both the diocesan and parish structures. “For the clergy continues Msgr. Gavenda new prospects and new tasks were opened, for which they were still not wholly prepared, such as catechesis, the formation of catechists, service in the hospitals… In the big parishes activities are aimed at practising Catholics, i.e. 10-20% of the baptized. During this last decade a great organizational and economic effort has been made to reconstruct the necessary structures to revive the life of the Church. Of the current 4,125 churches over 700 were built in the last 13 years. Together with churches, parish centres have also been built to provide facilities to the new and ever less anonymous parish communities”. “Among the difficulties to be overcome recognises Gavenda there’s also a certain mistrust in the ecclesial movements, which, especially under the regime, had partially lost their original drive, Collaboration with the religious orders, suspended under Communism, is improving. Many religious priests were officially parish priests of various churches and developed their own activity underground. The decline in vocations is creating problems in the administration of the parishes which in many cases are merged together. A common pastoral approach is still lacking: each priest acts in an independent manner, so that if he is replaced, things have to begin all over again from scratch. The forms of popular devotion, since they are a sign and source of genuine Christian life in the parish, need to be promoted and developed. And above all we need to pass from a traditional to a missionary pastoral ministry and demonstrate greater interest in those outside the Church”.
