The Slovak Catholic Church is remembering the centenary anniversary of Cardinal Jozef Tomko, one of the most significant representatives of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. He was born 11 March 1924 in Udavske, eastern Slovakia.
He started his theology studies in 1943 in Bratislava and two years later, he was sent by the then Košice bishop to study in Rome.
"I was back then a student in my final year in the seminary," said Cardinal Tomko in an interview recorded in 2022, just before his death. "While in Rome, I took several courses so as to deepen my knowledge in theology to prepare me to be a priest after returning to Slovakia."
But he did not come back. The communist party organized a coup in February 1948 and was hostile to the Church. In 1959, in Rome, Tomko helped set up the Slovak Institute of St. Cyril and Methodius, the educational institution for young priests as well as the centre of religious and cultural life of Slovak expats.
Pope John Paul II appointed Jozef Tomko in 1979 Secretary General of the World Synod of Bishops, the counselling body to the Roman Pontiff. In September of the same year, Tomko was consecrated a bishop.
He visited Slovakia in 1968 but the so-called “normalization” that followed after the invasion of Soviet- lead Warsaw pact troops made it impossible for the bishop to return. “I could not freely travel back home despite the fact that I kept my old passport and documents from the old Czechoslovak Republic,” he said in the 2022 interview.
In June 1985, the Pope appointed him Cardinal.
According to František Mikloško, once a Catholic Church dissident who became the Speaker of Parliament after 1989, Jozef Tomko was one of the few Slovaks who created global history. Cardinal Tomko died August 8, 2022, at the age of 98.
(RTVS)
