Miloslav Vlk
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk was born on 17th May 1932 in Líšnice, Písek district. After he graduated in 1952, he worked as a labourer in Monitor Union factory in České Budějovice. He went through the basic military service between the years 1953 and 1955 in Dvory near Karlovy Vary. After finishing the military service, time when the political situation was partially loosened, he was admitted to the Faculty of Philosophy at the Charles University in Prague to study archiving. He graduated from the university in 1960 and than he worked as an archivist in the District Archive in Třeboň, v Jindřichův Hradec, in District and Town Archive in České Budějovice, where later he became a director.
In 1964 he went to study
at Cyrilometodějská Theological Faculty in Litoměřice. On 23rd June 1968 he was ordained as a priest in České
Budějovice, where he was also appointed Bishop Josef Hlouch’s secretarial assistant. Vlk’s influence and
pastoral activities seemed to embarrass the political authorities so he was transferred to Lažiště and Záblatí in Šumava.
From 1972 he stayed in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem for seven years. Here, in 1978 he was taken away his so called
‚state approval‘to performing the clerical service. He lived in Prague for the next 10 years; as a priest he secretly
worked in small worshipper groups and at the same time he worked as a window cleaner, and later as an archivist in the Czechoslovak State
Bank.
On 1st January 1989 he was given back the ‚state approval’ and he became a parson in Klatovy. On 14 February 1990 he was appointed Bishop of České Budějovice (bishop consecration on 31st March 1990), on 27th March 1991 the archbishop of Prague and the Czech primate, the successor of Cardinal František Tomášek. From 1991 to 2000 he was the chairperson of the Episcopal Conference of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic and later Czech Episcopal Conference.
On 26th November1994 he was appointed Cardinal by Pope Jan Pavel II. Between 1993 and 2001 he was the chairperson of the European Episcopal Conferences Council. Since 1994 he has been a member of the Papal Council for Communication Media and the Congregation for Eastern Denominations. In April 2005 he took part in the conclave in Vatican where the cardinal congregation elected Benedict XVI the new Pope.