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The Night of the Barbarians: Memoirs of the Communist Persecution of the Slovak Cardinal

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Perhaps our author's early years as a young Jesuit novice started out just as unusual as his early priesthood was destined to be. At 15 yrs old, Jan Korec, a native of Bosany (in the Slovak Republic) was the youngest Jesuit novitiate in his region; he took his vows at age 17 in 1941. Three yrs later, during the 1944 Slovak National Uprising, Korec hid out in a cellar in Trnava, reading philosophy to pass the time as the front line moved on thru. After that, he worked at a Trnava hospital caring for wounded Russian soldiers! Then while completing his studies at the Jesuit Institute, he wrote his thesis on Dialectical Materialism--irony incarnate, of course, as this is the official swan song of good marxists everywhere. And it was these very marxist followers who committed the horrors on that barbarian night of April 13, 1950 when the Czechoslovak state government shut down convents and monasteries and arrested religious leaders as "enemies of the state." Undaunted, Korec was secretly ordained a priest 6 months after this; the following year, he was secretly consecrated a Bishop of the Catholic Church. Over the coming years, he himself would ordain over 120 priests in "underground" ceremonies. Alas, in 1960, he was arrested for "treason" and imprisoned at the infamous Valdice and Pankrac prisons (he received early release in 1968 during the "thaw"). Even after his release, Bishop Korec lived under constant surveillance up until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The 30 years he spent under the communist hacks make up the bulk of this book and provide compelling reading. Many editors and distinguished personages went into the making of this book; forewards are penned by Vaclav Havel and Pope John Paul II. Fotos are provided liberally thru the text, as well as helpful footnotes to events and persons discussed within. Korec pulls no punches either in naming specific commie villains (a pox to you Vojtech Filkorn!) and he weaves his prison experiences with other famous Church figures (Bishops Vojtassak and Hnilica) alongside him. Occasionally, the text gets bogged down with legal details in his trial hearings and individual's names are not always provided in a uniform manner with diacritics. NOTB is not a grim preachy and humorless read at all: Korec weaves humorous anecdotes all through his trials with marxist mayhem. You'll learn all kinds of things in this book: that Czech crystal was the product of prisoners working under duress and in unsafe conditions...in 1991, Korec was appointed a Cardinal in the Church (Nitra). Don't believe the naysayers who claim we have no heroes today--you just have to know where to look! For starters, then, meet Cardinal Jan Korec, a man who defied the machinations of a police state to ensure the survival of the Catholic Church in Slovakia.

An extremely interesting diary from Jan Cardinal Korec, S.J. Those of us that grew up in the cold war era got a chance to live during many of the bitter persecutions by the Soviet Union and her satellite countries. Later generations will surely forget the evil and curbing of rights inflicted even on the disciples of this particular form of socialism. The chapters are short but the Cardinal clearly conveys what it was like to be rousted by the "police" and to slowly lose all, especially your freedom. His false arrest and jailing give you an insight into the treatment received by all "enemies of the state". The treatment of the clergy is characteristic of all dictatorial regimes but again, without seeking pity, you get a first person account of what it was like to be stripped of a vocation of the highest order. His humility served him well and should inspire you. His love for God is obvious and he was not forsaken. I hope you get a chance to read the Cardinal's account and to be inspired by his character, especially his integrity and courage. Please buy the book and read it. Then, share it with others.