Written From the Haban Heart

Love of Letters - Sobotište

Part 2

“Blessings from the Heavenly Father!”

“We too thank God for our children and pray he will direct them in this complicated world.”

“The good Lord has taken her to Himself.”

“Easter is coming so I wish you and your dear family joy in the Risen Christ.”

“He keeps well with the help of medication, fruit, tea, cooked wine and faith in God.”

I could probably convince my readers that the above quotes are from some 19th century correspondence, or perhaps, excerpts from some foreign missionary's letters back home. They are, however, a sampling of excerpts from the collection of letters written in the 1990s between my mother and her Haban cousins in Sobotište and Moravský Svätý Ján. In my last post, I mentioned the 40 plus letters my mother had translated from Slovak to English so my aunts and my brother and I could be party to the correspondence. At the time I first read these letters, I saw them as a glimpse into the political workings of the new Slovakia, a country coming out of Soviet control in 1989 (the “Velvet Revolution”) and then the separation of Czechoslovakia in 1993 into two separate countries (the “Velvet Divorce”). There was much in the letters about life now free from Communist rule and the economic challenges of Slovakia and the Czech Republic going their separate ways. Recent readings of these letters, however, revealed a unique emphasis on certain subjects and use of certain language that I would come to see as distinctly Haban.

The above quotes were just a few of the examples of “God language” that naturally occurred in letters from many of Mom's correspondents. But more than the language and phrasing, the subject matter of the letters themselves were often spiritual in nature, church life and missionary pursuits a part of everyday conversation. Part of this natural emphasis on church life I'm sure is due to a new freedom to talk about such things after years of Communist suppression. Still, there is a distinctly Haban vibe in many of the letters, people who are intimately connected to the things of God as they go about their everyday lives.

The return of freedom of religion and the present priest shortage was a frequent topic in the letters, especially the ones from Sobotište, Grandma's hometown. Under Communist rule, religions of every flavor had been persecuted. The Habans in Grandma and Grandpa's hometowns were their own flavor of Roman Catholicism by this time as was the majority of people in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia. From the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the Catholics in Slovakia were especially earmarked for persecution, not unlike many of their Hutterite ancestors. Catholic priests and leaders were imprisoned and the few priests that were allowed to remain publicly free were often elderly. Mom's cousin Cilka, daughter of Grandma's brother Josef a.k.a. Uncle Pepi writes:

Here in Slovakia there is a great shortage of priests because under the communist government they did not allow young men to study for the priesthood. Of those that did apply, they only accepted a small number and only those that would be loyal to them (the Communists). They would not accept any recommended by the local priests.

There were also whispers of an underground church, young ordained priests who had secular day jobs and hid their true calling to avoid being jailed. I had a faint recollection, as a child, of hearing about some relative in Slovakia who was a clandestine priest, forced to flee the country when the communists took over Czechoslovakia. I think it was the Father Cerny mentioned in the following letter. Mom's cousin Josef, Uncle Pepi's son and brother to Cilka, wrote in a March 1993 letter an interesting history of the priest shortage and what priest life was like under Communist rule:

...Under Communism even though many young men wanted to be priests, they would not take them. For the whole of Slovakia they only allowed 10-12 priests which was very little. Up until now from Sobotište we only had two priests, Father Baumgartner and Father Rafael Cerny.

...When the Communists came, they locked them all up, together with the rectors and bishop. When they were released they were put to work in factories. After many years he (Father Baumgartner) was assigned to a parish but died at age 64...Father Cerny this year returned from Rome. He was out of the country since 1950. If he had stayed home they would have locked him up as they did his brother priests who were sentenced to 15-20 years hard labor, digging in the mines for the Soviets to make atomic weapons. Many of them never came home but died in those mines. At the time of the sentencing, the Salesians (to which Father Cerny belongs) 43 received sentences of 188 years – 18 of them from Slovakia. Altogether there were 171 priests and religious sentenced, of these five were released and the rest received 756 years and 7 months. Those who were able to leave the country are slowly returning. The young priests are going to Russia. Last week nine of them left for Siberia to work in the missions. We here at home must make the best of it. The ones going to Russia are the young ones and the ones who are returning, like Father Cerny, are mostly old oriests. Father Cerny is working in a Salesian Seminary at Sastin. So many young men are signing up that they cannot even take them all. By us there were many well educated priests who worked as engineers, doctors, etc. These all held civilian jobs. Here in Sobotište two young men used to come to our house to visit. One was an architect and the other a chemist and they worked in Senica. In 1990 when all the changes came, the older one celebrated Holy Mass in our church. The people cried as no one knew he was a priest. The second one will be ordained in Bratislava and we are invited...Even the town of Senica has woken up. In the past 100 years they had no new priests and now they have three priests and two studying. Also two girls have entered the convent as did our Erka and Janka (Josef's daughters).

There were many letters from both Cilka and Josef in my mother's collection, almost all mentioning spiritual topics. The comings and goings of priests and nuns were commonly talked about and what mission fields they had been sent to. Cilka's daughter, Ludka, writes of a spiritual pilgrimage she went on. In later letters, Cilka tells of the pilgrimage she herself goes on. Sadly, Josef's wife dies during this time and his letter, informing my mother that "God called her to himself" also contained a listing of the nuns, priests and theologians that attended her funeral – five priests, two theologians and 30 nuns, a number not surprising since two of Josef's daughters were Salesian sisters. Subsequent letters from Josef talk of his daughters' mission work in Russia and the comings and goings of the young priests in Slovakia. Josef writes with some pride:

Our Republic is quite small but when it comes to religion it's pretty big. We have missionaries all over the world in Japan, Albonshu (Albania?), Modagshari (in Kenya?), Brazil, Equador, Ukraine, China and Russia, in Siberia.

Despite the ongoing priest shortage, there seemed to be a self-sacrificing pride about the number of missionaries sent to countries with an even greater spiritual need. How Haban...