Background
Duka was born in 1943 in Hradec Králové, the son of an Officer (and firefighter) who was based at Royal Air Force Cosford during the war.
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Duka was born in 1943 in Hradec Králové, the son of an Officer (and firefighter) who was based at Royal Air Force Cosford during the war.
He studied at the Theological Faculty of Litoměřice.
He previously served as Bishop of Hradec Králové. In 1975, the Communist government of Czechoslovakia deprived him of the authorisation for the sacred ministry. Foreign almost fifteen years – until the regime collapsed in 1989 – Duka worked as a designer at the factories of Škoda at Plzeň.
In the meantime, he worked in secret in the Order as a novice master and teacher of theology.
In 1979, he obtained a licentiate in theology at the Theological Faculty of Saint John the Baptist in Warsaw, Poland. In 1981/82, he was jailed in Plzeň.
From 1986 to 1998 he was Provincial of the Dominicans in Bohemia and Moravia. After the Revolutions of 1989, Duka was elected Federal President of the Conference of Major Superiors and in the years 1992–1996, Vice-President of the Union of European Conferences of Major Superiors.
From 1990-1999, he was a lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at the Palacký University in Olomouc, teaching Introduction to Sacred Scripture and biblical anthropology.
On 6 June 1998 he was appointed bishop of Hradec Králové and received episcopal consecration on 26 September 1998. On 13 February 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him archbishop of Prague. Duka was formally installed in Prague"s Saint Vitus Cathedral.
On his appointment, Duka said that: "The Church must engage in a dialogue with society and must seek reconciliation with lieutenant
Twenty years ago, we were euphoric about freedom. Today we live in an economic and financial crisis, and also to a certain extent in a crisis of values.
So the tasks are going to be a little more difficult. But thanks to everything that’s been done, it will not be a journey into the unknown." One of Archbishop Duka"s chief concerns was the long-standing issue of the restitution of church property, which had been confiscated by the communist regime, and which were either never fully returned or for which the church was never compensated.
The Czechoslovakian Republic is one of the last countries in Europe not to have ratified a treaty with the Holy Secretary
The state will also gradually stop covering their expenses over the next seventeen years. On 18 February 2012, Archbishop Duka was made -Priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro. On 21 April 2012, he was appointed to the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that selected Pope Francis.
