Václav Kelnar

“They were chasing the poor man for a long time and they were not able to catch him. He was hiding in Liptál disguised as a nun. They were after him. He organised a group of young fellow friars and the communists intensely wanted to catch him and arrest him. When he realized that he was not going to win, he went to the convent in Liptál near Vsetín. The oblate granted him permission and father Filipec thus received a habit from the nuns and he was wearing it. One time we had a spiritual exercise in Liptál and we did not even recognize him when we were there. He did not speak to us. They eventually caught him. He was sentenced only to fifteen years. But it was terrible. When I was interrogated they were asking me all the time: ‘Where’s Filipec?’ They wanted to disgrace him, too. One time he was walking through Ostrava and some woman flung her arms around him and started kissing him passionately. There was a photographer standing by and taking pictures of them. Then they published it in newspapers, photos of priests kissing. They were simply chasing him. But surprisingly, he has lived to the age of ninety.”

“There was a group of fervent Catholics. I even knew some of them. Certain Josef Vlček approached me immediately and he told me: ‘Look, I’ll assign ten prisoners to you. They’re interested, they’re believers. We’ll always supply you with the reading for Sunday, with some text from the gospel, and you will learn it by heart. We’ll provide you with altar bread.’ On Sundays we were allowed to walk around the wooden prefabricated houses - that was all the walking we had. ‘Your people will always get near to you and you’ll do the liturgy of God’s Word for them and give them the communion if they wish.’ Ruda Zubek served the Holy Mass somewhere deep underground in a mine. They wrapped pieces of white bread rolls or bread in cigarette paper, because he had no altar bread with him. That’s the way it worked. I had ‘my’ prisoners on Sundays and I walked with them. They brought the gospel text to me, hidden in a shoe or delivered in some other way. It worked for some time but then somebody narked on Ruda Zubek. They beat him terribly, they took him away and then he was not there anymore and we thus had to do away without it.”