Ing. Vlastimil Bartoš

“Getting involved with non-official underground church structure. There I first experienced such things as a holy mass at the table; a civil one in a circle of just a couple of people, where a man was free from any usual form of liturgy and had to focus on the essentials, what was really going on. I am very grateful for it. Zahradník became like my second father. He was rather self-confident, strict and brave, firm and reliable. He never let me down. But he also require things. He was a kind of authority. So the fact he was a priest I leant quite soon, and about the bishopric also quite soon, as in some mysterious way he trusted me and took me to his journeys, even the pretty risky ones. And he was not so careless to get me involved in risky matters.”

“There were several objects, which were kind of masked in a rural alone standing place, which was difficult to access. Certain synods took place, organised meetings and so on. We got together in an coordinated way and non-coordinated too, from various placed from all over the republic. That means we changed cars on our way, changed licence plates, took a discourse and field roads, as the rest was controlled. After the revolution we of course found out that the secret police know about some of them; for example in Veselka near Letovice. Frída wanted me to secure it. But back then it was a problem. I tried to find a solution, how to establish ultra sound rays in trees and surrounding objects, sound generators, so that any breaking would be signalled. A simple wife would not do the job. Nowadays it is no issue, but back then we had little resources.”