„I received the highest order from above to change the faculty from textile to theological." - "What did the befel or signal look like?" -
"Absolutely out of the blue. The stream in Nová Ves nad Popelkou was ankle-deep, so I was not a swimmer. In my life I swam eighteen metres and more by accident. At school, we had a summer training course, basic, alpine and for non-swimmers. I immediately joined the one for non-swimmers, and that was in Ústí nad Labem. We used to go to the thermal swimming pool in Klíša or in Brno, and always during eating time it was said which swimming pool the public transport would go to. Somehow I missed it and suddenly I found myself at the swimming pool in Brno and I was there alone. I didn't want to drive back across town to Klíša, so I read a book and I finished the book." - "Was that some kind of spiritual book?" - "Yes, it was All Glorious Within by Bruce Marshall. I finished reading it and I heard a voice: You will be a priest. That was on Friday afternoon and I started arranging it immediately on Monday.“
„There were even murders among the prisoners. Whoever was weaker, they immediately terrorized them and made them an inferior person. An unfortunate person who happened to be young there would easily be turned into a whore by others. And nothing could be done about it. Prisoners make hell in a prison mainly among themselves. The other supervisors are not to blame. And there's probably nothing you can do about it." - "Were you able to go to the cells to visit them?" - "In the beginning it was absolutely no problem. Everything was so relaxed, I used to go there in the evening to play rummy with them. But as it gradually settled down, everything became institutionalised and then the department of dangerous prisoners who were a danger to themselves or others, there you would talk basically through the bars. I was there alone, but through the bars." - "Was it necessary? Or do you think they would hurt you? Aren't you afraid of them?" - "It was necessary. Sometimes it happened - not to me - but other chaplains had incidents where a prisoner put his hands through the bars and tried to choke them.“
“I started my ministry in Libčeves after my predecessor who was a drunkard, and I found everything there devastated beyond imagination. I thought: If I behave, I will stay here until I die and I will be watching those ten or fifteen parishioners who go to church here die. And how many new people would then replace them? I cannot live in such a passive way here. I was thinking what to do. The decision to sign Charter 77 was related to that. I signed it in spring 1978, at the time of the harshest persecution. They were imprisoning just about everybody. I had thought about it thoroughly.”
“They saw that I had passed my school-leaving exams in English, and therefore they assigned me to a post where they needed somebody with English. The army service was tough. But I got assigned to the anti-radio regiment where we were listening to the communication of the American army. To be specific, our unit was monitoring the artillery control centre at the shooting range in West Germany, which served for navigating the missiles. In listening to their live communication, you could hear: ´Vertical angle...´ all the time.”
“I befriended young people from the underground movement. They had a barn in a tiny village near Chomutov, and they were organizing concerts with The Plastic People of the Universe there. Events like this were being held there. But during a concert, there are only six people playing and the others are just passively listening. They only get together, talk and encourage each other. I thus said: ´We need to do something. We will do theatre.´ We rehearsed the play Salome by Oscar Wilde. There are about twenty actors performing in it. When we were preparing for it, we had lunch in the afternoon and then we performed the play in the yard of the presbytery in Libčeves. The StB policemen had their headquarters in the pub. When we finished the play, we were in ecstasy that we had managed to perform it until the end and we were euphoric. Then at midnight the StB agents rang the bell on the door of the presbytery.”
Josef Kordík was born August 1, 1948 in Jilemnice. He graduated from the Secondary School of Textile Engineering and from the Saints Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology in Litoměřice. He was ordained a priest in 1975. His first post was in Bílina, where he served as a chaplain for two years. Then he served as a priest in Libčeves, which is located in the Bohemian Central Uplands. He befriended young people from the underground movement, and they began staging theatre plays in the presbytery. In spring 1978 he signed Charter 77. This act was followed by interrogations by the State Security Police, which he depicted in the book „The Book Which Did Not Have To Be.“ In 1981 his licence for pastoral work was annulled and Josef was then earning his living as a locksmith and cabinet-maker. He was able to return to his ministry only after November 1989. In December 1989 he became priest in Železnice near Jičín where he has been living since then. In 1990-2013 he served as a chaplain in the prison in Valdice.
