Sawt Falasteen - Divisive Czech cardinal Dominik Duka dies at 82

Persecuted under the communist regime of the former Czechoslovakia, Duka repeatedly came under fire during his time as Archbishop of Prague from 2010 until 2022, including for allegedly protecting paedophile priests.

His stance earned him a place on a "dirty dozen" list of potential papal candidates in 2013 accused of sweeping sex crimes under the rug, allegations he has denied.

"Today... three hours after midnight, the Lord of Life called Cardinal Dominik Duka, Archbishop Emeritus of Prague, to eternity," the Archbishopric said, adding that he died in a Prague hospital.

The communist government stripped Duka of the permit to serve as a priest in the 1970s and made him get a job as a layout man at an engineering company.

In the 1980s, Duka spent 15 months in prison where he met Vaclav Havel, who led the 1989 Velvet Revolution that toppled the communist government.

Havel, a playwright who was the Czechoslovak and then Czech president from 1989 to 2003, recalled their philosophical debates and chess games in prison.

When Havel died in 2011, Duka celebrated the funeral mass.

He also helped negotiate a law under which Czech churches of 17 denominations got back assets stolen by the communists after World War II, valued at $3.3 billion at the time.

During the Covid pandemic, Duka called the coronavirus "a biological weapon" during a sermon, prompting a denial from the country's top immunologists.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the cardinal argued for understanding of Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women, describing them as "victims of the strongest emotions".

In September this year, he said a mass for US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump when he was shot dead by a gunman.

Duka described Kirk as an "honest and courageous man" despite admitting he had never heard about him before his death.

The Czech Republic, an EU member of 10.9 million people, ranks among one of the most atheistic countries in Europe.

A.AlHaj--SF-PST