Today 5 August 2024 marks the centenary of the birth of Silvo Krčméry, a young Slovak Catholic activist, who helped found the JOC in Slovakia in the late 1940s after the end of the Second World War.
Thanks to the efforts of a Croatian-born ex-Jesuit priest, Tomislav Poglajen also known as Tomislav Kolakovic and others, the JOC had begun to develop in an underground manner even during the war.
A number of French jocists who had been sent to Czechoslovakia on STO or Compulsory Labour Service – forced labour, basically – also cooperated in this initiative.
The movement began to develop quickly in Slovakia but was soon cut short by the emergence of a pro-Soviet communist government.
Fr Kolakovic had left in 1948 for China, where he also helped launch the Chinese JOC before that too was closed down after the Chinese Revolution of 1949.
Meanwhile, Silvo Krčméry and many of his colleagues were imprisoned by the new Czechoslovak regime for long periods from thirteen years to life.
It’s an incredible story that even now is almost completely unknown outside of Slovakia. I don’t know of any other JOC movement in the world that was so completely annihilated by imprisoning its leaders and chaplains than what happened during that period.
Ultimately, most were released by the 1960s and became leaders of a strong see judge act based “Rodina” or “Family” movement, inspired by the message of Fr Kolakovic.
Many leaders of this movement, including Silvo, also eventually played key roles in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which led to the end of communism in Czechoslovakia.
Indeed, Silvo eventually became a parliamentarian.
Some of his story can be read here on the website of the Slovak National Institute for Memory:
https://www.upn.gov.sk/en/silvester-krcmery-1924-2013
I also gave a talk on his involvement in the foundation of the JOC in Slovakia at a centenary conference held in Trnava, Slovakia on 24 June 2024.
See the slides and read my talk here:
Quotes
Before the Higher Military Court in Trenčín. At that time – on June 24, 1954 – Silvester Krčméry gave a speech [9] that every Slovak high school graduate should know by heart, at least in a condensed form, regardless of their religious affiliation. We can see beautifully from that speech that Krčméry’s fight for religious freedom was also a fight for freedom as such. For him, the name of Christ was a synonym of goodness and truth, and even the court at that time must have been taken aback by his thought: “By serving God and man, we also served human society, and according to today’s terminology, the ‘working class’ as well.” Although we do not divide people! Neither according to classes, nor according to property and coat, nor according to race or origin, but every person is another Christ for us.” Although there is no doubt that this idea of Krčméry’s grows out of his religious faith, without a single proofreading it could be taken over by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights rights. “
– Ľubomír Feldek, Slovak poet and novelist
” The work of Vladimír Jukl and Silvestre Krčméry only started to be written about in the Slovak press only a few years ago. Silvester Krčméry was already bedridden. After November 1989, he extended his activities to young drug addicts and socially handicapped youth. The relationship between Silvester Krčméry and Pope John Paul II deserves special mention. They met at a time when the Pope was not yet the Pope, but the Krakow Archbishop. Archbishop Wojtyla met Krčméry as soon as it was possible to cross the Polish-Czechoslovak border more freely, that is, on a pass. He recognized Krčméry’s greatness very quickly, it didn’t take him twenty years like the Slovak press. After his election as pope, he regularly communicated with Silvester Krčméry and valued his opinions. In February 1990, I was the head of the Czechoslovak government delegation that invited John Paul II. to visit the Republic. Silvester Krčméry and Vladimír Jukl were also in the delegation. The Pope invited us to a private dinner at his premises in the Vatican Palace. I saw then with my own eyes how the Pope respected Silvestre Krčméry. “
– Ján Čarnogurský, former dissident, later Prime Minister of Slovakia, 1991-92
Stefan Gigacz
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Silvester Krčméry (Wikipedia.sk)