Michal Kaňa

* 1953

  • "Again, we needed some information. The main point was that we needed to get religious books to Slovakia. And how to get them? So it was necessary to find people to which addresses we can deliver it and who will receive it, who will not be afraid and who will know about it. And of course, so that when someone carries those books, in a car or something, so that they don't have to ask anyone and come to that address and that person would recognize that it's not a danger. Of course, I had to map out the address, the person, the arrival, the route, the number and everything." 0:41:20 - 0:42:45 – The main mission of Michal's work for the church was bringing religious literature to Slovakia

  • "I also bought our Slovak youth magazines so that it would not be noticeable to anyone. And, of course, I inserted these data into the crossword puzzle. First I projected it in my head and then I put it in those crosswords and so on. Beyond the border, I then supplemented what was missing there, and then it was taken to Rome. When there were international matches of football or some other nature, those people from the Netherlands, Germany came in a camper or something, where they could have stored these things and exactly to the destination address to bring it, to unload it there. Of course, those who brought it and those who received it took risks. They risked investigations or perhaps even threats. Although it was the case that for them it was an anti-state activity and for us it was something that we thought a person had the right to do. But it was not possible, so I was simply entrusted to look for these roads and these possibilities and bring them to Rome. But no one knows that. Until I left the religious order, and that was in 1982. Every year I went to Slovakia at least twice, if not three times." 0:42:45 – 0:44:07 – Michal wrote secret information in the crossword puzzles of youth magazines

  • "I finished this activity because I left the religious order and went to Austria to work at a Salesian high school... When I no longer wanted to be a religious and I didn't want to be a priest. I meant, I didn't want to... I would have wanted to, but I wanted to have my family. I wanted to know why I was alive. So, of course, they "didn't need me" anymore. As every priest who leaves the religious order gets married, so a bishop does not need more. Then, of course, the model boy simply became a quasi-enemy. Of course, I had to fight my way through life. That's how it was. Well, you see, I got married and the state authorities simply didn't want to let my wife go abroad." 0:47:30 - 0:48:28 – Michal left the religious order and finished working for the church

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    Žilina, 28.05.2021

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I encrypted the secret data in the crossword puzzles of youth magazines

Michal Kaňa as a young man
Michal Kaňa as a young man
zdroj: Witnesses archive

Michal Kaňa was born on September 9, 1953 in the Slovak village of Selenča in Serbian Vojvodina in the former Yugoslavia. Father Štefan was engaged in the production of sorghum brooms, mother Mária was at home with six children, Michal was the youngest. When he was one year old, his father and three brothers died, his mother had to take over the role of breadwinner, Michal was looked after by nuns. In 1961, the Slovak Institute of St. Cyril and Methodius, where Slovak boys living outside Czechoslovakia studied, were taught by exiled priests. Michal also studied there, later in the great seminary of Nepomucenum, at the Salesian and Pontifical Lateran University. After his studies, he taught at the Slovak Institute of St. Cyril and Methodius. As a Yugoslav citizen, he had the opportunity to travel without restrictions to Czechoslovakia and became a link in the transmission of information between the Salesians in Rome and the Slovak Salesians, and he also transported religious literature, which was banned in Czechoslovakia at that time. He did secret work for the Salesian society until 1983, when he left the order. He got married and he and his wife settled in Vienna. He was interrogated several times by Czechoslovak, Yugoslav and Austrian state authorities. He started working as a teacher at an Austrian high school, later moving into the private sector. He was not in his native Selenča for 15 years, his wife could visit her mother in Slovakia and in Selenča only as a foreigner on a foreigner‘s visa. The fall of the communist regime meant a big change in the life of Michal Kaňa. With the fall of borders, he could travel freely. He built production facilities in Slovakia, where approximately 200 employees found employment, later he retired. He devotes himself to his family, writes poems and a book about how he helped 40 young boys from his hometown to study in Rome at a Slovak grammar school.