The Catholic Church in the Post–1989 Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

The Czech Republic and Slovakia share important strands of history, from the earliest seeds of Christianity planted in their lands in the 9th century, to similar cultures and not dissimilar languages. Both shared centuries within the Habsburg Empire, though each under a different status, undergoing industrialization and urbanization in different ways. They spent decades of common history, from 1918 until 1992, within the Czechoslovak state. World War Two had a profound impact on both, with a truncated Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi rule and Slovakia as a state under Nazi aegis—seen by many Slovaks as a culmination of lengthy struggles for autonomy. Some 40 years of political cohabitation in communist Czechoslovakia brought the two closer together in economic and social development. Yet, despite widespread support in both parts for continuity within a possibly modified state, the two parted in a rather rare, non-violent way. Thus 1 January 1993 marked the first day of two decades of post-divorce existence as democracies. Since then, both have become members of the EU and NATO, with both alliances demanding important new obligations and commitments. Both are challenged by forces of globalization and European integration. Relations between the two nations are generally friendly.