Church bells rung to mark return of cardinal's remains from Vatican

Church bells were rung in the Czech capital to mark the repatriation of Cardinal Josef Beran's remains to his homeland, almost 50 years after his death in Italy. The former archbishop of Prague was laid to rest in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican after his death in 1969, when the communists in power in Czechoslovakia refused to allow his remains to be returned home. His last wish was to be buried in the country of his birth.

On Friday, his coffin began the journey home aboard a special military plane after a liturgy in the Vatican. The plane and accompanying delegation landed at Prague's Kbely military airport shortly after 6 pm. They were greeted by Defence Minister Karla Šlechtová, the chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, General Josef Bečvář, the Speaker of the upper house Milan Štěch and others.

A motorcade then accompanied the cardinal's coffin to the Archbishop's seminary in Prague Dejvice and later to the Strahov Monastery.

Prague Archbishop and Cardinal Dominik Duka will present a mass for Cardinal Beran on Saturday and on Monday his coffin will be placed in a sarcophagus in the tomb of Prague Archbishops at St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle.

A commemorative plaque, meanwhile, will be installed in St Peter’s Basilica as a permanent memorial to the Czech cardinal whose name became a symbol of resistance to both the Nazi and communist regimes.