- Title: CZECH REPUBLIC: CANONISATION OF 17TH CENTURY CZECH PRIEST
- Date: 21st May 1995
- Summary: OLOMOUC, CZECH REPUBLIC (MAY 21, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD 0.12 2. SV POPE JOHN PAUL II IN BACK OF POPE MOBILE ARRIVING AND DRIVING THROUGH TOWN / CROWDS WAIT 0.30 3. SV CROWDS WATCHING AND CHEERING 0.35 4. SV POPE ON PODIUM 0.42 5. SCU POPE READING STATEMENT (CZECH) 0.52 6. SV VARIOUS OF CONGREGATION IN RAIN 0.58 7. SV VARIOUS OF POLICE ARRESTING PROTESTER 1.16 8. SV MASS IN PROGRESS 1.47 9. SV POPE IN POPE MOBILE DRIVING PAST CHEERING CROWD 2.07 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 5th June 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: OLOMOUC, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Reuters ID: LVA23V7WCSPJI9MHONH8R8D0KZOP
- Story Text: Pope John Paul asked forgiveness in the name of Catholics for wrongs inflicted by the church on other denominations on Sunday (May 21), the second day of his visit to the Czech Republic.
The Pontiff made the plea as he conferred sainthood on a priest martyred during the 17th century struggle for religious supremacy between Catholics and Protestants, a canonisation that has angered Czech evangelical churches.
"Today, I the Pope of the Church of Rome, in the name of all Catholics, ask forgiveness for the wrongs inflicted on non-Catholics during the turbulent history of these peoples," he said at a mass outside the city of Olomouc.
"At the same time I pledge the Catholic Church's forgiveness for whatever harm her sons and daughters have suffered," he told the congregation as rain fell on the former Soviet airbase where the mass was held.
It was one of the 75-year-old Pope's most explicit statements on the need for Catholics and other Christians to work for mutual forgiveness aimed at eventual unity.
At the mass, he conferred sainthood on Jan Sarkander, a priest martyed by Protestants during religious wars in the areas of modern-day Poland and the Czech Republic, despite protests from Protestants.
Protestant nobles tortured Sarkander to death in 1620 in an attempt to discover the military strategy of Catholic forces.
They accuse Sarkander, who was born across the border in what is now Poland, of being a traitor and agent of oppression who encouraged a Catholic invasion.
In his sermon, the Pope held out an olive branch to Czech Protestants and voiced his wish for Christian unity.
"This canonisation, far from reopening painful wounds which in the past marked the body of Christ in these lands, is meant to entrust to a glorious witness the cause of Christian unity," he said.
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