New Cardinal for the Order of Preachers

Today on this feast of Blessed Fra Angelico, the Dominican Order shared in the joy of the elevation of the new Cardinals in a special way. Our brother, Dominik Jaroslav Duka, O.P., Archbishop of Prague, Czech Republic was one of those given the red biretta, the sign that one day he may be called to suffer for the Faith.

And in fact, Archbishop Dominik already has during the years of Communism in his native country.

Dominik Duka was born on 26 April 1943 in Hradec Kralove. He joined the Dominican Order, making his temporary profession on January 6, 1969, and was ordained priest on the 22^nd of June the next year.

For five years he worked in several parishes in Prague, and made his solemn profession in the Order on January 7, 1972.

In 1975 he was deprived of authorization to exercise his priestly ministry, and was forced to work as a designer in a car factory in Plzen until the fall of Communism in 1989. Meanwhile, he worked in secret as master of novices and professor of theology. He was imprisoned in Plzen between 1981 and 1982.

From 1986-98 he was Provincial of the Dominican Province of in Bohemia. He was elected president of the Federal Conference of Major Superiors and, from 1992 to 1996 was vice-president of the Union of European Conferences of Major Superiors.

From 1990 to 1999 he was a professor in the faculty of theology of Palacky University in Olomouc. On June 6, 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Hradec Kralove. He was ordained bishop on 26 September 1998. On 13 February 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as archbishop of Prague.

You can read more about our Brother-Cardinal HERE.

Cardinal Dominik has been close to our monastery in Prague since the beginning. Recently, he helped the nuns acquire land so that they can build a proper monastery and currently they are working to raise much needed funds.