Bishop Pavel Konzbul of Brno, Czech Republic, is backing the late-May gathering despite a public backlash led by former Czech presidents Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman.
For the first time, the Sudeten German Association, uniting descendants of those expelled from Czechoslovakia after World War II, will gather in Brno, the second-largest city in modern-day Czech Republic. They were invited by the cultural festival Meeting Brno for part of its multiday program in late May. Both entities will discuss reconciliation and commemorate the victims of the Shoah.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is expected to come, too. The gathering is titled “All Life Is Meeting.”
A reconciliation Mass will be celebrated at the Brno Exhibition Centre as part of the gathering.
Ulrike Scharf, Bavarian state minister for family, labor, and social affairs, told EWTN News that the event “shows that we are reconciled, that we have become friends.”
Scharf, whose agenda includes Sudeten Germans in Bavaria, stressed that reconciliation is “the essence of Europe.” In this “wonderful” European community, “it is crucial that we meet in friendship,” the politician explained.
Yet the decision created a polemic in Czechia, with public figures weighing in and a series of protests, one of
