Where has the Czech Orthodox Church disappeared to? From Gorazd to Michal and decay

The name Matěj Pavlík is not just a historical footnote. It's a scale. A measure of what the Czech Orthodox Church was - and what seems to cease to be today. Gorazd was not a mere administrator of the church structure. He was its founder in the truest sense of the word: following the Serbian Orthodox Church, he systematically built domestic, Czech Orthodoxy. He educated and ordained Czech priests, translated the liturgy, and founded parishes. His project was thoughtful and long-term—to create a church rooted in the language, culture, and society of that country.

This church has survived the almost unsurvivable. The Nazis practically eliminated it after the assassination of Heydrich, Gorazd was executed. The communist regime deformed, manipulated and controlled it. Yet she survived. For decades after the war, there was a generation of priests who were the bearers of the Czech Orthodox identity – linguistically, culturally and spiritually.

Today, however, it is necessary to ask the question without embellishments: Does this church still exist?

The decay didn't start yesterday. The publicly known turning point was the affair connected with the person of Kryštof Pulec. He resigned in 2013 following a widely media-covered scandal in which he was accused of having long-term intimate relationships with women, including allegations of coercion and abuse of position. However the individual claims were interpreted, the result was devastating: a loss of trust, a breakdown of authority, a deep division within the church.

This was followed by a period that instead of stabilization brought more erosive phenomena. The work of Bishop Jáchym Hrdý was repeatedly criticized for managerial and pastoral incompetence and incompetence. In the media and within the church, there were criticisms of the management of the eparchy, personnel decisions and the general inability to consolidate the situation. The Church gradually reached a state where it was not only incapable of growth, but also of elementary stability.

And then comes Archbishop Michal Dandár of Prague. If anyone should fix the situation, it's him. Instead, however, we are watching the deepening of the crisis into a structural form. Its operation is accompanied by serious and repeatedly publicized problems, especially in the area of ​​management. The Prague eparchy reached a state where it was unable to pay the salaries of the clergy. The Ministry of Culture initiated steps that could lead to the removal of the church's special rights - that is, to interference with the legal status itself. Ecumenical structures responded by suspending membership. These are not marginal excesses. This is a system failure.

But even more serious is a fact that goes to the very essence of the church: the loss of the ability to reproduce its own clergy. Archbishop Dandár did not ordain a single Czech priest during his tenure. There is no systematic education of domestic clergy. There is no conception. On the contrary, priests are imported from abroad, especially from the Transcarpathian region, while personal and family ties are also mentioned. This is no longer the enrichment of the church. This is her replacement.

Extreme examples only paint the picture. Elevating a very young clergyman, barely twenty-five years old, to the rank of archimandrite – that is, superior of a monastery – without adequate tradition and experience is a denial of the basic principles of church life. He always stood for gradual maturation, not jump appointments. There is also an absence of examination of the actual theological education of the clergy.

The result is visible even at the elementary level today. In a number of churches, worshipers will not read the bulletin board unless they speak Ukrainian. The Czech liturgy - systematically built up since the time of Gorazd - is disappearing. Divine services in Czech are an exception. The language that was the bearer of the identity is replaced. It's not about plurality. It's a loss of identity.

This is where the paradox of management comes in. Management of rich temples in Prague - for example, the area on Slup or the Cathedral of St. Cyril and Methodius in Prague - and at the same time the inability to secure payments, lost labor law lawsuits with the clergy. Financial operations mentioned in the media, including donations in the order of millions of crowns, contrast with elementary financial instability. This is not just a managerial failure. This is a loss of responsibility towards the very essence of the church.

And where is the supreme authority? Metropolitan Rastislav Gont and the Holy Synod have not only canonical but also real authority to intervene. They have information, they have documents, they know about development in the long term. Still, there is no remedy. Inaction in a situation of systemic breakdown is not neutrality. It's shared responsibility.

This brings us to the point. The Czech Orthodox Church has historically been defined by three pillars: the domestic clergy, the Czech language of the liturgy, and the awareness of continuity from the Cyril Methodist tradition through St. Gorazda. Today, all three pillars are broken. The domestic clergy is disappearing. The language is disappearing. Continuity is broken.

Therefore, the question is inevitable:Does the Czech Orthodox Church still exist - or is it just a structure that bears its name but not its content and money from the state is being misused for someone else's benefit?

History shows that the church can survive its own destruction. Gorazd's church survived the Nazis, it survived communism. But it always survived because there was a core -- the people, the language, the sense of identity. If this core disappears, nothing survives.

And that is today's risk. Not an external attack. Not persecution. But internal emptying and pilfering.

The final question remains: Is the resurrection still possible?

Yes – but only at the cost of radical change. A return to the education of the Czech clergy, to the Czech liturgy, to responsible management and to the true naming of reality. Without it, there will only be an empty box for foreign interests. And the name of the Martyr Gorazd will remind not a living tradition, but a lost opportunity.

Source:
REPORT LIST (2025).The Ministry of Culture has started administrative proceedings with the Orthodox Church in the Czech Republic. Available from:<read article>

ODKRYTO.CZ(2025).The Ministry of Culture initiated proceedings with the Orthodox Church due to debts. Available from:<read article>

I ROZHLAS (2014).The Ministry of Culture has stopped restitution for the Orthodox Church due to internal disputes. Available from:<read article>