Mgr. Petr Čapek

“She was thinking about the historical question, she was a philosopher. She belongs in the circle of the educated people such as Milan Balabán, Ladislav Hejdánek, Šimsa and some others with whom she was in dialogue. Professor Souček… they had mutual respect for one another with Patočka. And, for instance, the weekend in Jircháře, that was the home of students, double lectures by Jan Patočka and J. B. Souček on the state of philosophy and theology. She never compromised herself, she was very modest, nice, sympathetic. And she had clear ideas about the church-political matters. Then she became a Chartist, it was around her that the Charter was drafted. She lectured with us at Žižkov, even at my brother’s, my brother served for some time as a parson in Sázava u Ždáru, there, too, she lectured on Toleration Decree and matters of freedom. We respected her very much.”

“We were not in touch with him later, he was busy travelling around the world, this was the Christian Peace Conference. Which is a topic of its own, because it was him who opened the door to Europe in the 1950s. Martin Niemöller was here, the famous theologian and submarine captain in WWI and a member of the Confessing Church, so when he arrived in Prague and preached at the St Martin in the Wall, it was a real event – that is in the closed world, or Hans Joachim Iwand, an important theologian was here, and other, Helmuth Gollwitzer, this was much appreciated, as it seemed that the door of the time of unfreedom was opening. But it is true that the Christian Peace Conference deviated in the Eastern direction. And this was something we could not agree with as students.“