DOMINIK CARDINAL DUKA OP (1943–2025)
Life and Education
Dominik Duka was born as Jaroslav Duka on 26 April 1943 in the Rožberk district of Hradec Králové. He was baptized in the church in Pouchov. His mother Anežka came from Hory Matky Boží in the Šumava region, while his father František originated from Pouchov.
During the Second World War his father served in the Protectorate Government Army. With the help of the Dominican Jiří M. Veselý he deserted in Italy and escaped through Switzerland to England. There he became an armourer of the 311th Czechoslovak Bomber Squadron of the Royal Air Force. In the 1950s he was nevertheless sentenced by the communist regime together with other members of the Czechoslovak army on the Western Front and imprisoned in the Mírov prison. He died in 1991.
Jaroslav Duka served as an altar boy from the age of twelve in the church of St. Paul the Apostle in Pouchov. He attended school in Hradec Králové and graduated in 1960 from the J. K. Tyl Grammar School. Because of his family background he was initially denied further university studies. Therefore between 1960 and 1962 he trained as a mechanical locksmith in the ZVÚ factory in Hradec Králové and afterwards completed compulsory military service.
In 1965 he was admitted, after several appeals, to study at the Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology in Litoměřice. On 5 January 1968 he secretly entered the Dominican Order (Order of Preachers – Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum), which was banned in Czechoslovakia at that time. In the order he adopted the religious name Dominik. A year later he made his vows and on 22 June 1970 he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Štěpán Trochta.
Priestly Ministry and Service in Jáchymov
After his ordination he served as a priest in several parishes in western Bohemia, including Chlum Svaté Maří, Nové Mitrovice and also Jáchymov.
On 7 January 1972 he made his solemn vows in the Dominican Order. In 1975 the state authorities withdrew his permission to exercise pastoral ministry. He therefore worked as a draftsman in the Škoda engineering works in Plzeň, while continuing clandestine religious activities and helping organize secret Dominican studies.
In 1979 he obtained the licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of St. John the Baptist in Warsaw. In 1981 he was sentenced to fifteen months of imprisonment for allegedly obstructing state supervision of the churches and served his sentence in the Plzeň-Bory prison. His contacts with foreign institutions, publications in samizdat and the organization of studies for Dominican clerics also contributed to his conviction.
Activity after 1989
Between 1986 and 1998 he served as provincial of the Czechoslovak Dominican Province. After the fall of communism he became chairman of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors and lectured in biblical studies at the Faculty of Theology of Palacký University in Olomouc.
On 6 June 1998 Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Hradec Králové. During his episcopate he founded the Diocesan Theological Institute and a church grammar school in Skuteč. From 2000 to 2004 he served as vice-chairman of the Czech Bishops’ Conference. On 6 November 2004 he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Litoměřice, a position he held until 22 November 2008. In 2009 he founded the diocesan ecclesiastical court. He led the Diocese of Hradec Králové for eleven years.
Archbishop of Prague and Cardinal
On 13 February 2010 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Prague and Primate of Bohemia. On 21 April 2010 he was elected chairman of the Czech Bishops’ Conference and became Grand Chancellor of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. On 18 February 2012 he was created a cardinal.
He also served as General Chaplain of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.
Honours
Dominik Duka received numerous national and international awards.
In 2001 President Václav Havel awarded him the Medal of Merit of the Czech Republic, First Class.
In 2007 he received the Grand Cross Pro Piis Meritis of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
In 2008 he was awarded the Cross of Merit First Class by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic.
In 2012 he was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
In 2013 he received the rank of Bailiff, Honorary Grand Cross of the same order.
In 2015 he received honorary medals from the Armenian National Assembly and the Prime Minister of Armenia.
In 2016 he was awarded the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
In the same year President Miloš Zeman awarded him the highest Czech state decoration, the Order of the White Lion.
Honorary Doctorates
He received three honorary doctorates:
2010 – University of Fribourg in Switzerland for his lifelong efforts in defence of human freedom and resistance to totalitarian regimes.
2013 – University of Hradec Králové for his contribution to the establishment of the field of Political Science – Latin American Studies.
2015 – Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw, where he had previously completed his licentiate thesis “Zápas o člověka” during the communist era.
He was a member of the Scientific Council of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, chairman of the board of the Czech Catholic Biblical Work and a member of the Confederation of Political Prisoners. In 2010 he received the Dr. František Ulrich Prize. He was also an honorary citizen of Hradec Králové, Polná and Libice nad Cidlinou.
Works
Dominik Duka authored several theological monographs including Zápas o člověka, Úvod do studia Písma svatého, Škola vnitřní modlitby and Úvod do teologie.
For more than thirty years he participated in the Czech translation project of the Jerusalem Bible, contributing both as an author and as an organizer.
He also published articles in the samizdat periodical Zahraniční studie and wrote dozens of articles in domestic and international journals and newspapers.
