Václav Habart

* 1940

  • "One day, it was the anniversary of the October Revolution, so we received a paper telling us what to read during the services on Sunday. I read it, and it was horrible! Celebrating the October Revolution and all that, so I thought, 'How am I going to do this? I can't read this at mass.' So I did it like this... And then the report came in that I hadn't read the -the pastor's letter, they called it. So I did that - in Borsov, Sunday mass started at quarter to eight. When three-quarters struck, I went out in the black clerica and monotonously read their letter. And when I left, I rang the bell just as Mass was beginning and went to dress. Meanwhile the organist played two stanzas and the normal Mass began. And whoever was watching me was late for that Mass, not late for the three-quarters, but late, and was horrified to discover that I had not read the pastoral letter about the October Revolution. So he immediately reported it to Kavale on Monday. He called me up, as it were, so I told him, and he laughed quite heartily, saying it was clever. Then I think he called somewhere and then it went quiet."

  • "And I had to go to the dorm and live there anyway. We were allowed home once a fortnight, and that was because of the propaganda. Because we were being drilled in this atheism, so for example... On Sunday morning we slept until maybe nine o'clock, then the tutor came and that was his introduction to the day. The stupid ones go to church, but we'll go to the playground because we need muscles. So we went to the playground in the morning after a small breakfast, it wasn't very organized, we mostly played football there."

  • "Contingents it was called, so it was already... There was always a national committee, and there everyone got a paper telling them what to take - how much milk, grain, wheat, and so on. We always just had a bag, they called it a culiac... those were the ones that were there the most, the small farmers."

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    České Budějovice, 28.03.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 02:18:45
  • 2

    České Budějovice, 15.05.2023

    (audio)
    duration: 01:29:55
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One should not be a proxy and serve mammon

Václav Habart at the seminary, Litoměřice, 1975
Václav Habart at the seminary, Litoměřice, 1975
photo: Archive of the witness

Václav Habart was born on 18 June 1940 in Krašovice. In his childhood he was influenced by his strongly religious mother Josefa, but he sought the path to the priesthood through a youthful period of atheism, supported by the regime of the time. He was trained in Sezimovo Ústí at the apprenticeship of the labour reserves at Kovosvit, where he also took up employment. From 1960 to 1961 he was in the army in Český Krumlov, where he converted internally and after the war became a chaplain in České Budějovice. While working, he finished his distance education from technical school , but in 1971 he entered the priestly seminary. In 1976 he was ordained a priest and moved to Boršov, where he began to work as a priest. From 1993 to 2012 he served as administrator in Jindřichův Hradec, then retired. In 2023 he lived in České Budějovice.