Roofer and preacher of the Word of God
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Father Václav Netuka was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou on 2 October 1929. He was the youngest of five brothers. His father worked as a saddle maker, his mother died when Václav was thirteen years old. He studied at the grammar school in Rychnov nad Kněžnou, and after graduating in 1948 he joined the priestly seminary in Hradec Králové. His studies of theology did not last long, however. In 1950 the seminary was dissolved by official decree and Václav had to enter the Auxiliary Engineering Corps (forced labour masked as military service). He served in Pilsen and then in Přerov, where he took part in constructing a military airfield. After his release he began attending a house seminary for priests in Brno; he was secretly ordained to priesthood in 1968. During the 1970s he worked in a roofers’ co-op that repaired church roofs throughout Czechoslovakia. He and his colleagues made use of these working trips for religious activities and the spreading of spiritual literature, which they copied out on cyclostyles. In 1983 he was arrested and spent four long years in remand. He was accused of pilferage and the distribution of forbidden literature. Following 1989 his priesthood was at last officially recognised, and thus in his sixty years of age he began to fully devote himself to his spiritual duties. He served as a pastor in Brno-Židenice; he is currently an assistant pastor in Lovčice near Chlumec nad Cidlinou.
