The new Archbishop of Prague will lead a penitential pilgrimage in October in reparation for sins committed within the Church.
Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl announced the Oct. 5 walking pilgrimage to Hájek, near Prague, in his first pastoral letter since his installation in April.
In the Sept. 6 letter, Přibyl addressed recent scandals affecting the Prague archdiocese.
He appeared to refer to the case of Antonín Juriga, a permanent deacon and former executive director of the archdiocese who was arrested by Czech police Aug. 6 and charged with rape, abuse, extortion, and making threats. Juriga is also being investigated for possible financial offenses.
The archbishop also seemed to allude to recent abuse allegations against a priest of the archdiocese.
Přibyl said he was “painfully aware” that trust in the Church had been damaged.
“Most recently, it suffered a serious blow from grave suspicions of reprehensible moral and financial offenses, even violence, about which the media have recently reported, as well as a case of abuse by a priest,” he wrote.
“I assure you that I acted immediately and firmly. Now it is necessary to allow the competent authorities and institutions to investigate all the suspicions properly and to draw the appropriate consequences from them.”
“I share with you, including through this letter, the pain, frustration and shame caused by the scandal that has been given.”
Přibyl is the successor of Archbishop Jan Graubner, who retired in February 2026 at the age of 77. Graubner was in turn the successor of Cardinal Dominik Duka, an anti-communist dissident who died in November 2025. Both Graubner and Duka faced public criticism over their handling of abuse cases but rejected coverup allegations.
Přibyl, 54, is a Redemptorist who previously served as secretary general of the Czech bishops’ conference and bishop of Litoměřice. He chairs the bishops’ conference safeguarding commission. In June 2026, he signed a memorandum between the conference and the abuse survivor organization Someone Will Believe You (Někdo Ti uvěří).
In the pastoral letter, Přibyl said that restoring trust could not be achieved with “merely human solutions.”
“Even more important is to ask the Lord for the healing of the wounds of the past and for the grace of a new beginning,” he wrote. “For this reason, I would like us, together as a diocese, to make a penitential pilgrimage to Hájek near Prague on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, the day after the feast of St. Francis, the saint of peace and poverty.”
The pilgrimage will start at the Church of St. James in Hostivice, a town in the Prague-West District, with Mass two hours later at Hájek, a Marian pilgrimage site.
Přibyl said the Mass would include “a penitential devotion, during which we will ask the Good Lord for forgiveness of our sins.”
“I will be first, because I too am a sinner,” he wrote. “We will also make reparation for sins committed within the Church which have rightly scandalized so many people. Finally, we will ask for the conversion of our hearts and for a blessing upon our archdiocese.”
The Prague archdiocese serves around 558,000 Catholics out of a population of 2.3 million.
In the pastoral letter, the archbishop also looked ahead to 2030, when state funding for the Church’s basic operations and clergy salaries will end under the terms of a 2012 church-restitution settlement.
“The time when complete financial separation from the state will take place is inexorably approaching,” he wrote.
“Although those responsible for administering Church property should be good stewards, I do not think their mission is to turn the Church into a rentier living solely from the proceeds of its granaries (Lk 12:16-19), shares, or other investments.”
“The intention of securing the Church materially for the future is unquestionably commendable; nevertheless, I would like to shift the emphasis. To live and prosper, we do not primarily need material capital, but above all the involvement of people, mutual trust, a sense of belonging and a willingness to bear responsibility together.”
“If there are people, the Church will always prosper. If there are not, what good will its investments be?”
Less committees, more of this, please.
This is a worthwhile endeavor. I hope the good Archbishop will explain the theology to his flock very well so they understand why they are being asked to do a special penance in response to the sins of others who will not be on the walk. I understand it myself, and we are all sinners, but it can be confusing for people to understand why, when they are scandalized by some Catholic's behavior that was outside their knowledge and control, they then always get asked to atone for it.
Additionally, I hope these types of acts are not taking the place of putting processes and controls in place to keep abuses from happening again.