History of Czech Church

[mrsflash9004]

I am new to the Catholic Church (starting RCIA in September). My mom is very Anti-Catholic. She claims it started when my greatgrandmother, who came to America from Czechoslovakia in the early 1900’s, told her the main reason they left the country was the Catholic Church in her home country was forcing the people to hand over most of their money and they were made poor for it, while the Catholic Church was wealthy. Can anyone tell me if this information is true or where I could possibly find an answer to this claim.

Thank you!

 

[CatholicNerd]

mrsflash9004:

I am new to the Catholic Church (starting RCIA in September). My mom is very Anti-Catholic. She claims it started when my greatgrandmother, who came to America from Czechoslovakia in the early 1900’s, told her the main reason they left the country was the Catholic Church in her home country was forcing the people to hand over most of their money and they were made poor for it, while the Catholic Church was wealthy. Can anyone tell me if this information is true or where I could possibly find an answer to this claim.

Thank you!

If you’re looking for info on the Czechoslovakian Catholic Church, I would suggest going to www.byzcath.org and visitng the forums there. I know very little about it.

 

[liseux]

Hello,

I am a 3rd generation American of Czech descent. One grandpa came from there, while my other Czech relatives were born in Texas. All my people have ever expressed is reverence and devotion for the Czechoslovakian Catholic experience. My grandmothers and aunts and uncles were deeply committed to their Catholic faith and Czech heritage.

From what I understand, my people and most from the old country came here for farming opportunities, which they found much of! (My other German grandpa came here because he didn’t want to “fight the Kaiser’s war.”)

In fact, I remember seeing picture of some Texan- Czech society (now defunct) back in the 1920s that had a benefit and sent money back to the poor Czechs in Czechoslovakia (not the Czech Church!). It was a regular thing for them to try to help the people back home, kind of like the Mexican immigrants today send money back to the relatives in Mexico.

I live in Lavaca County, which has a strong German-Czech component in the population (about 88%) and the Catholics are serious (generally) about their religion. I have never heard such an account before of the Catholic Church in the old country being money hungry.

Hope this has helped.

God bless,

Liseux

 

[otm]

The story sounds like someone had an axe to grind. Most of what a church (not universal, local) has in terms of art, garments (priest’s robes), jewels (decorations on tabernacles, chalices, etc.), gold and silver, are owned by the parish for use (i.e. they are not items bought for investment pruposes). The claim that the money is being taken away (what, did someone break in and steal? come in under the authority of police and seize money?) or that they were “forced” to hand it over, and the church was wealthy, smacks of someone who has a different issue, and is using this one to justify why they are leaving the church. People get angry with the church, be it Catholic or Protestant, or whatever, for perceived abuses. And when it gets down to the proof of the abuse, well, something else is at the root. It is akin to declaring that priests are drunks (a few are) or sexual abusers (a few are), or that all nuns are physically abusive (a few may have been); the charge usually gets down to one individual, and then all are castigated. Most hatred of the Catholic Church is only hatred of what that individual perceives the Catholic Church to be, not what it actually is (ok, so Bishop Sheen said it better).

 

[Hesychios]

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Anything I say will not do justice to this question, but I would like to touch upon a few points!

The church in the Czech Republic (or rather the land of the Czech people, the Republic is a new thing) has always been electro-charged with quasi-political overtones. The people of Bohemia and Moravia have suffered much and the religious practices of the Czech people have largely been affected by the politics of Europe.

I don’t know that the church ever had any power to extract money from people. Landlords and governors always did.

CatholicNerd touched upon something that just might be a hint to the crises of religion that seems to have plagued the Czech people for generations. The Czech people were originally evangelized by Cyril and Methodius, in fact the Czech people were their original specific targets! So Christianity first came to the Czech lands from the East and the people who converted were Byzantine Catholics.

After the Moravian Empire fell the princes under German influence drove out the Byzantine priests and otherwise suppressed the Byzantine Catholic church, this was well before the Great Schism between east and west. The same thing happened in southern Poland and Croatia.

The Byzantine priests and deacons went on to convert Bulgaria and finally Russia.

The Czech people didn’t quickly forget their origins and they tended to equate the church with the Germans and Austrians. Political upheaval tended to have religious overtones. When they wanted freedom in their homeland they also wanted communion in both species (the Roman church didn’t distribute wine at communion like the eastern church) and married priests!

So the Czech people always had politics mixed with religion and religion in their politics.The church itself was preoccupied with saving souls and had to deal with whomever was in power at any given time. It’s the same all over the world, unfortunately.

The Irish had the same complaint against the Anglican church, but the problem wasn’t really about the Anglican church, it was about the English overlords!

Some Russians today resent a Russian Orthodox church many are blaming for abuses under Stalin. The Russian Orthodox church was primarily a victim, just like the people.

As an example, look at the situation in China, there is the underground church and there is the Catholic Patriotic church approved by the communists in China. If the Chinese ever get true religious liberty we will attempt to integrate the Patriotic church back into the worldwide Holy Catholic church. But people there may carry a bitterness against the Catholic church for generations because of the Patriotic Associations’ connection with the government. The Catholic Communion doesn’t want abuses of the people anywhere, but is helpless to prevent some things that happen under a strong and unsympathetic government, or powerful alien landlords.

I hope that this puts a little perspective on the situation.