ABROAD

A renewal of religious enthusiasm in Czechoslovakia has begun to supplant the civil-rights Charter 77 group as the target of persecution by the Communist government of this country. The enthusiasm came to a head last summer at a celebration at Velehrad in Moravia of the 1,100th anniversary of the death of St. Methodius, the apostle to the Slavs, which was attended by 100,000 Roman Catholics. Pope John Paul II was represented by the papal secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who delivered a sermon. The Czech minister of culture, Milan Klusak, who was also present, was the subject of catcalls and jeers. The ensuing uproar led the government to cancel Cardinal Casaroli’s scheduled appointments in Prague, which were intended to explore the state of the Czechoslovakian church. Polls show that in spite of persecution 36 per cent of Czechs over 15 in Catholic districts of the country are believers. (The corresponding figure for Protestants is slightly lower, but still impressive.) Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek, the 86-year-old archbishop of Prague, has told visitors that he is optimistic about the future of the church in Czechoslovakia, now that the government understands the real strength of religious sentiment among the Czechs. Nevertheless, formidable barriers to faith remain. Priests cannot be ordained without government approval; parents must have permission for their children to receive religious instruction; priests who disobey the rules governing catechism are deprived of their licenses and forced to work as laborers. A Communist publication recently accused the church of “raving hostility” toward the government and asserted that, since the Pope supported “aggressive circles of imperialism,” strong resistance would have to be applied to “reactionary clericalism.”

If you looked up advertising in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in the Stalin era of forty years ago, you would have found it defined as “a means of swindling the people and foisting upon them goods frequently useless or of dubious quality.” If you look it up today, you will find quite a different definition. The Soviets are now told that advertising is “the popularization of goods with the aim of selling them, the creation of demand for these goods, the acquaintance of consumers with their quality, particular features, and location of their sales, and explanation of the method of their use.”