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Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka has condemned a theatre festival in the Czech second city, Brno, from featuring the play ‘Our Violence, Your Violence.’ And as a result the church has said it will not take part in events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia.

In his letter on behalf of other bishops, Duka said the play was a sell out of Christianity and its ideals and an insult to all Czechs and Christians as well as Muslims.

The church says the play, by director Oliver Frljic, involves a scene where Jesus Christ rapes a Muslim woman. The theatre festival has resisted demands the play be withdrawn from the programme.

A new statue depicting Saint Vojtěch and fellow saints is set to be unveiled at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague on Thursday evening. The ceremony will take place at the same time as the remains of exiled Czech Cardinal Josef Beran are taken out of the crypt of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Cardinal Josef Beran, a symbol of resistance to the communist regime, was exiled to Rome in 1965, where he died four years later. He was buried in the Vatican because the communist authorities did not approve the return of his body to his homeland.

The Cardinal’s remains will be flown to the Czech Republic on Friday and will be buried in Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral the next day. The idea for the statue to be placed in the cathedral emerged during the time when Cardinal Beran was still Archbishop of Prague and Primate of Czechoslovakia.

Lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies elected ANO Party MP Jiří Mašek to head the standing parliamentary commission overseeing the police general inspectorate (GIBS).

Mr Mašek’s election was criticised by the opposition parties, who say the Prime Minister and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš tries to gain control over the country’s security corps.

The previous head of the commission Zdeněk Ondráček, a former riot police officer who beat pro-democracy demonstrators in Czechoslovakia in 1989, stepped down following demonstrations across the Czech Republic and a motion for his removal.

The Constitutional Court has called for minor modifications to the anti-smoking law introduced in the Czech Republic in June 2016.

The court scrapped a provision banning the sale of alcohol to those who might likely injure themselves and the sale of alcohol and tobacco at events aimed at children.

The main aspects of the ban remain in force, including a total ban on smoking in restaurants and other public places. The court was called to deal with the matter by a group of senators, led by Marek Benda of the Civic Democrats.