EUROPE/SLOVAKIA - A Missionary among fellow prisoners: Ján Havlík is blessed

by Chiara Dommarco

Šaštín (Fides News Agency) - "Where is God in the darkness of history? Faith helps to acknowledge that He is here, writing his love story, "said Father Emil Hoffmann CM, vice postulator of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Jon Havlík, the Vincentian seminarian whose beatification ceremony will be held today at the national sanctuary in Šaštín.
Born on February 12, 1928 in Dubovce, a village in western Slovakia, to Karol, a worker, and Justina (Pollékova), at around thirteen years of age he decided to begin the path of vocational discernment to enter the Congregation the Mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. In 1943 he began to attend the Apostolic School of the Congregation of the Mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Society (minor seminary) in Banská Bystrica. The coup d 'état of February 1948 marked the beginning of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
Due to the political upheaval, Ján only completed his cycle of studies in May 1949 and began his novitiate in August that same year. When in April 1950 the ŠtB (Slovak political police) implemented the"Akce K", the operation aimed at wiping out all male religious orders, Ján and the other novices were arrested, subjected to a "re-education" program for two weeks and then to forced labor. Released three months later, Ján continued his theological training clandestinely, while also working as a workman in Nitra. Arrested once more by the ŠtB on October 29, 1951, together with the other Vincentian seminarians, he was preemptively detained for 15 months, tortured and accused of anti-state action. In February 1953, the young man was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour for high treason, later reduced to 10 years on appeal.

Father Emil, who in the diocesan phase of the beatification process represented the Vincentian postulator, summarized the heart of the young Slovak's the earthly mission: "For Havlík, any situation was right for proclaiming Christ. Even prison was a place of mission for him. Ján said of his work in prison: ‘I feel as if I am on a mission, no missionary could wish for a better and more demanding place to work. If only there was more time. If only work didn't weigh us down so much”. Despite the exhausting labor, at night he copied "Integral Humanism" by Jacques Maritain, to distribute it to his fellow prisoners. In inhumane conditions, he worked in several concentration camps and extracted uranium from the mines in Jáchymov until the autumn of 1958, when he was accused of belonging to a clandestine association of inmates. "Saint Vincent de Paul - explained Father Emil - warned his missionaries that within the virtue of zeal they could touch two extremes: on the one hand the lack of zeal, laziness, forgetfulness, harshness or insensitivity; on the other, an excess of zeal, severity, authoritarianism. There are testimonies about Ján that are comforting in this sense: he helped write letters, procured useful books and, when possible, spoke of God".

The 1958 accusation was due to Ján's evangelistic activities, as he himself stated in the trial to which he was subjected once discovered: another year was added on to his ten years of forced labor, precisely in odium fidei. “Manifesting one's faith – said Father Emil - was strictly forbidden in labor camps, which is why everything related to faith was kept in the utmost secrecy. If discovered, the ‘culprits’ were sentenced to the reformatory, a small room where it was impossible to stand up straight, or to a new trial, as happened to Ján. Those who knew him said that he had been condemned twice because of his faith". From May 1958, no longer able to work due to the mistreatment he'd received, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and then transferred to various Czechoslovak prisons until October 29, 1962, the date on which he was released after having served his sentence. To these last few years of his life belong the two notebooks that the young man has left us, dedicated to his spiritual experience: "The Way of the Cross of little souls" and "Diary". Since his death, which occurred prematurely on December 27, 1965, due to the physical and psychological torture he endured, the reputation of martyrdom has spread, along with a certain fama signorum.
The diocesan phase of the cause of beatification was launched on June 9, 2013 and the beatification is taking place just over 10 years later, with speeds that surprised even the vice-postulator himself. "There are events and long periods in history - Father Emil commented - where it seems that God has lost control of reality and forsakes people. So where is God? Faith helps to acknowledge that He is here, writing His love story. It is an attitude of faith to believe that even the communist regime has not escaped the hands of God, but allowed God to purify and ennoble the truer side of many people". The communist regime itself is also crucial to the phase of the recognition of heroic virtues, as Father Emil recounted: "Nowadays it is trendy to write books, to tell compelling, shocking stories. Ján, on the other hand, speaks to us through those who loved him and who did not want the heroic testimony of his youth to be discarded by history. His own tormentors also helped us to gather information about the seminarian, because they documented in detail the testimony he gave in the labor camp".
The St. Vincent de Paul Society currently has 7 communities between Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which are part of the Slovak Province of the Order. Thirty-three priests and four brothers serve there. Communities in Slovakia can be found in Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, Bijacovce and Lučenec, while those in the Czech Republic are located in Loštice, Dobruška and Žlutice. The Slovak Province also includes a community in Sangrelaya, Honduras, and one in Chicago, USA. (Fides News Agency 31/8/2024)

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