Mgr. Dominik Duka, Archbishop of Prague and Primate of the Czech Church, a Czechoslovakian dissident historian, is an important figure in contemporary Catholicism.
Originally from Bohemia, 55 year old Jaroslav Duka entered the Dominican order under the name Domink, during the Prague Spring in 1968, when the revolt pushed the underground forces of religious orders to come out into the open after the tough repression of the 1950s.
After receiving his priestly ordination in 1970, he became a parish priest with a fighting spirit.
He made his Solemn Profession in 1972 but in 1975 authorities took away his permission to practice the sacred ministry, because he wore his cassock in public.
He then worked for approximately fifteen years as a designer in the Škoda factories in Plzeň, whilst secretly carrying on his religious work.
In 1981, Dominik Duka was arrested. Despite being sentenced to fifteen years, he set free thanks to the Charter 77 movement which acted in favour of religious authorities and international organisations.
His relations with the late President Vaclav Havel, with whom he partook in the non-violent fight for freedom and democracy against the oppression of the totalitarian communist regime.
As a Catholic primate in one of Europe’s least religious Countries (59% of Czechs declare themselves atheist according to a 2001 census), in 2000 Mgr. Duka is a member of the commission for the agreement between the Czech state and the Holy See which received final approval last September.
One of his tasks involves aiding the return of Church property to Rome, including the historic cathedral of SS Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert in Prague, which has been at the centre of controversy for over fifteen years.