The figure of Cardinal Josef Beran is not literally connected to Neratovice or the adjacent region. However, it is the life story of Cardinal Beran, full of faith and determination, that deeply resonates with local residents. The fate-tested cleric never succumbed to difficult trials and bravely stood up to both the Nazi and Communist regimes.
As rector of the Prague Archdiocesan Seminary and professor of theology, he was arrested after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 and subsequently imprisoned in the concentration camps of Terezín and Dachau.
In 1946, he was ordained Archbishop of Prague, but the Communist coup in 1948 immediately put him in disgrace again. He spent most of the following years interned in various corners of the republic under the supervision of the StB (secret police), who vainly tried to gather compromising material.
In 1965, Josef Beran traveled to Rome to be appointed cardinal by Pope Paul VI, but the Communist regime no longer allowed his subsequent return to his homeland. For the rest of his life, Cardinal Beran supported his compatriots from Vatican exile, where he eventually passed away in 1969.
His beatification process was initiated in 1998. Subsequently, after twenty years of careful examination of every aspect of his life, the documentation was solemnly handed over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the Vatican in 2018.
Inner freedom and faith in God's justice inspire the residents of Neratovice, who have been meeting despite fate for decades. The town built under Communist rule now lives with hope that it will finally have its own sanctuary – the Neratovice church, a place full of faith and joy.