Pope picks Czech bishop who was jailed, did factory job under communists, for Prague post

Pope picks once-jailed cleric for Prague post

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has picked a Czech bishop once jailed and forced into factory work under Communism to lead the Prague archdiocese.

The Vatican said Saturday that Monsignor Dominik Duka will replace retiring Cardinal Miloslav Vlk.

In 1975, Communist rulers of Czechoslovakia revoked Duka’s authorization to serve as a priest and made him work nearly 15 years at the Skoda factory in Plzen as a designer.

The Dominican cleric secretly carried out his ministry, instructing novices and teaching theology. He was jailed in 1981-82.

Pope John Paul II, who was a Communist-era cleric in Poland, made Duka a bishop in 1998. Duka led the Hradec Kralove diocese.

Prague archbishops traditionally are cardinals, making it likely Duka, 66, will become one, too.