"Of course, while I was there [in high school] there were attempts to steer me away from that school [seminary], and I was reminded that the math and the construction school, that that would be a perspective for me as opposed to this. The vice-principal said he thought I was going to go in the political direction, that I had always had an A on my ID. Of course, I never had that again. I didn't even have a medal then. There was just a certain pressure on me externally. But externally. But a Latin professor also called me secretly into his office and said to me: 'You want to become a parish priest and how come you don't take Latin? Well, I should have known!' So I sensed even small acts of favour at the school. However, our headmistress at the time, Blažena Chroboková, had to leave her post as headmistress because of this. She was, so to speak, dismissed by promotion. She became an inspector, but she didn't teach anymore. She had no contact with the students after that."
"You live in it, so you didn't always realise it. But I was just guarded [in the military]. A lot of things were secret to me in the regime, a lot of things I didn't have access to at all. For example, the soldiers who were going to march in the May Day parade for the anniversary of the liberation were being selected, and even though I matched the height parameters, I was excluded from the selection because I was so-called unreliable. So I couldn't even march there, because I might have brought something up. So I stayed alone in the barracks at that time, so I wouldn't do anything. On the other hand, I was almost the only one with a high school diploma in the company at that time, so they used me for typing or some office work. But it used to be that I had to do my typing in the hallway because the office was secret to me, so I really sometimes typed in the hallway in the winter in my coat because I couldn't go to the office. But again, sometimes I could go in there. Or it was forgotten that I couldn't actually, so they even gave me the task of bringing some prescriptions. Then they were horrified at headquarters, how come I was there, and then the commander got in trouble because he sent Slouk to get some secret papers. That's just the way it was. So sometimes they were afraid of me, sometimes they restricted me. But because I was already old enough, sometimes I made fun of it."
"It was only as a clergyman because if I wasn't a clergyman, I couldn't be there [in Pacem in Terris]. So when I was already working as a priest in Brno, there were such remarks. Once I even said to the church secretary, in response to such an incentive, that he shouldn't be angry, but that if my mother couldn't teach, I couldn't enter such an institution. He said it was probably a mistake. So I told him that if it was a mistake on my mother's part, then I really couldn't. So sometimes I was somehow defended by that situation of my mother too when they suggested that I could and that it would bring me perspective. Because of course the ones that were there usually got better jobs or some benefits in quotes. So I didn't have that."
Mons. Václav Slouk was born on September 8, 1957 in Brno. Together with his two brothers, he grew up in Hrušovany u Brna. His father, Václav, was a worker and his mother, Jindřiška, née Hulatová, who was unable to pursue her teaching profession because of her faith, worked as an accountant, janitor or telephone operator. Parents led their children to faith and to be faithful to their conscience. Václav was a model pupil and later a student. He was actively involved in the competitions of the time, mostly propaganda-oriented, and always represented the school excellently. He caused the school administration even more shock when in his final year he announced that he would apply to the seminary in Litoměřice. Although he did not actively oppose the totalitarian regime in our country, as a clergyman he experienced many of its pathological phenomena first-hand. During his compulsory basic military service in Malacky, Slovakia, he was, for example, included among the group of the morally disturbed, where priests were placed together with those prosecuted. And even though he belonged to the so-called official church before the Velvet Revolution, he earned more than once, to put it simply, the reprimand of the church secretary. In one case, for example, in connection with the Society of St. Gorazd and Comrades, whose choir he provided facilities for rehearsing liturgical chants as chaplain at St. James in Brno. In addition to singing, some members of the community were involved in anti-communist activities and their activities were a thorn in the eye of the regime. Václav Slouk is the dean of Brno, a Roman Catholic priest and parish priest at the parish of St. Giles Church in Brno-Komárov and since 2002 he has also been a canon of the Royal Chapter of Saints Peter and Paul in Brno.
Parish priest of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church Olga Skálová and Mons. Václav Slouk during the blessing of the burial ground at the Brno Central Cemetery, 2005
Parish priest of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church Olga Skálová and Mons. Václav Slouk during the blessing of the burial ground at the Brno Central Cemetery, 2005
