„Až vraždy tam byly mezi vězněma. Kdo byl slabší, tak si ho okamžitě zterorizovali a udělali z něj podřadného člověka. Nešťastný člověk, který tam byl mladý, tak si z něj klidně ostatní udělali děvku. A s tím se nedalo nic dělat. Peklo ve věznici si dělají především vězni mezi sebou. Ti ostatní dozorci nejsou na vině. A asi s tím nejde nic dělat.“ – „Mohl jsi chodit na cely je navštěvovat?“ – „Ze začátku to bylo naprosto bez problému. Všechno bylo tak uvolněný, chodíval jsem tam večer s nima hrát žolíky. Ale jak se to postupně usazovalo, tak už se vše institucionalizovalo a pak oddělení nebezpečných vězňů, kteří jsou nebezpeční sami sobě nebo druhým, tam byl rozhovor zásadně přes mříž. Byl jsem tam sám, ale přes mříž.“ – „Bylo to nutné? Nebo myslíš, že by ti ublížili? Nebál by ses jich?“ – „Bylo to nutné. Občas se stalo – mně ne – ale ostatní kaplani měli i příhody, že vězeň prostrčil ruce skrz mříž a pokoušel se je zardousit.“
„Dostal jsem nejvyšší befel seshora, abych změnil fakultu z textilní na teologickou.“ – „Jak ten befel nebo signál vypadal?“ –
„Naprosto zničehonic. Potůček v Nové Vsi nad Popelkou byl po kotníky, takže jsem byl neplavec. V životě jsem uplaval osmnáct metrů a víc ani náhodou. U školy jsme měli letní výcvikový kurz, základní, vysokohorský a pro neplavce. Okamžitě jsem využil pro neplavce, a to bylo v Ústí nad Labem. Jezdili jsme na termální koupaliště na Klíši nebo v Brný a vždycky při jídle se řeklo, na které koupaliště se MHD pojede. Nějak jsem to přeslech a najednou jsem se ocitl na koupališti na Brný a byl jsem tam sám. Nechtěl jsem jet zpátky přes celé město na Klíši, a tak jsem si četl knížku a dočetl jsem tu knížku.“ – „To byla nějaká duchovní knížka?“ – „Ano, byla to Plná slávy od Bruce Marshalla. Dočetl jsem ji a uslyšel jsem hlas: Budeš farářem. To bylo v pátek odpoledne a hnedka v pondělí jsem si to začal zařizovat.“
“I started my ministry in Libčeves after my predecessor who was a drunkard, and I found everything there devastated beyond imagination. I thought: If I behave, I will stay here until I die and I will be watching those ten or fifteen parishioners who go to church here die. And how many new people would then replace them? I cannot live in such a passive way here. I was thinking what to do. The decision to sign Charter 77 was related to that. I signed it in spring 1978, at the time of the harshest persecution. They were imprisoning just about everybody. I had thought about it thoroughly.”
“They saw that I had passed my school-leaving exams in English, and therefore they assigned me to a post where they needed somebody with English. The army service was tough. But I got assigned to the anti-radio regiment where we were listening to the communication of the American army. To be specific, our unit was monitoring the artillery control centre at the shooting range in West Germany, which served for navigating the missiles. In listening to their live communication, you could hear: ´Vertical angle...´ all the time.”
“I befriended young people from the underground movement. They had a barn in a tiny village near Chomutov, and they were organizing concerts with The Plastic People of the Universe there. Events like this were being held there. But during a concert, there are only six people playing and the others are just passively listening. They only get together, talk and encourage each other. I thus said: ´We need to do something. We will do theatre.´ We rehearsed the play Salome by Oscar Wilde. There are about twenty actors performing in it. When we were preparing for it, we had lunch in the afternoon and then we performed the play in the yard of the presbytery in Libčeves. The StB policemen had their headquarters in the pub. When we finished the play, we were in ecstasy that we had managed to perform it until the end and we were euphoric. Then at midnight the StB agents rang the bell on the door of the presbytery.”
Josef Kordík was born August 1, 1948 in Jilemnice. He graduated from the Secondary School of Textile Engineering and from the Saints Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology in Litoměřice. He was ordained a priest in 1975. His first post was in Bílina, where he served as a chaplain for two years. Then he served as a priest in Libčeves, which is located in the Bohemian Central Uplands. He befriended young people from the underground movement, and they began staging theatre plays in the presbytery. In spring 1978 he signed Charter 77. This act was followed by interrogations by the State Security Police, which he depicted in the book “The Book Which Did Not Have To Be.” In 1981 his licence for pastoral work was annulled and Josef was then earning his living as a locksmith and cabinet-maker. He was able to return to his ministry only after November 1989. In December 1989 he became priest in Železnice near Jičín where he has been living since then. In 1990-2013 he served as a chaplain in the prison in Valdice.
