Prague, June 25 (CTK) – The remains of Czech Catholic priest Josef Toufar, who was tortured to death by the StB communist secret police in 1950, will be buried under the floor of the church in Cihost, east Bohemia, on July 12, the author of the grave’s design, Norbert Schmidt, said Thursday.
On July 11, Toufar’s remains will be exhibited in Cihost. Church services and a programme cultural will accompany the event.
Toufar served as priest and died in Cihost. The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the church in which the event known as the Cihost Miracle occurred. On December 11, 1949, a cross standing on the main altar of the church allegedly moved several times during Toufar’s sermon. The communist regime used the event as a pretext to persecute the Catholic Church.
The remains were exhumed from a mass grave in Prague Dablice last November. Forensic geneticists said the DNA analysis and the genetic profiles proved that the remains belonged to Toufar.
Forensic geneticist Tomas Pexa compared the genetical profiles from the biological samples gained thanks to the exhumation of the remains with those from three samples of Toufar’s direct relatives.
“The result is clear. The probability that the remains belong to Father Toufar is 99.99 percent,” the project’s coordinator Eva Vorlickova said.
Based on the anthropological conclusions, it can be presumed that the skeleton is Toufar’s, anthropologist Petr Veleminsky said.
Toufar was arrested in 1950 and tortured. The police investigators wanted him to admit that he had moved the cross in order to fake a miracle. Toufar died at the age of 38 of a burst stomach ulcer following brutal beating.
The exhumation is part of Toufar’s beatification process that was initiated by Hradec Kralove bishop Jan Vokal last year and that is likely to last several years.
Priest Tomas Petracek, from the Hradec Kralove diocese, said the communist regime wanted to erase both Toufar’s body and his memory. The exhumation and dignified burial frustrates the effort of his murderers, Petracek said.
From the point of view of archaeology, this has been the first examination of a mass grave of political prisoners of the Czechoslovak communist regime.
Organisations of former political prisoners called on Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka to order an examination of the mass graves and declare them cultural heritage.
Toufar’s family, which demanded the exhumation from 1954, will receive the urn with the remains several days before the burial, according to CTK’s information.
Toufar’s niece Marie Pospisilova tried all her life to return his remains to Cihost, her daughter Jitka Cvetlerova said.
