"I recognized a family house as I had reached it somehow. They only gave me some description before. Krátký, Davídek, and their family members were there. I served a prime divine service. It was at night, deep in the night. I do not want to say that it was before or after midnight, that's what I cannot remember today, as one event followed the other, and I had to walk on my own sometimes. They told me: 'Someone will wait there, there, and there, etc.' Thus, heavily concealed, yet revealed profoundly, I would argue. Because, once I reached the tram stop, some man had been standing there already, waiting for the tram. The tram went under some crossing then, and the name of the stop was Líšenská, I guess. And it was at night, so the tram ran like once an hour. They sent me there, somehow, and I had to walk around for about fifteen minutes or half an hour and wait for the tram. There was that man with a dog waiting as well. Then, I just kept reading the departures schedule, and so on. He pretended not to be there and was just walking around. Later, the tram arrived, and I got on, the man did the same. We were moving - I am not sure now whether I was changing lines or not, not sure about him either. And I became suspicious. So, once we reached Veveří, I changed the line and went to Konečného Square, even though I lived in Čapková Street at the time. It was further than I would usually go, and then, I got off there. The man with the dog got off as well. Not only I found it suspicious, but it was almost clear.“
"So, I was inspected for about an hour by a group of - let's say - ten comrades, who had gathered together and talked to me: 'And how about the Čihošt's miracle?', etc. I was saying: 'I have never been to Čihošť; as such, I cannot tell you anything about that. I have only read what was in the newspaper. I did not read there anything about what had happened. Actually, there is just a condemnation saying that it was just a hoax. I cannot judge it myself. How could you expect me to judge it?' – 'Well, as they acted in such a bad way.' And I replied: 'You know, a bad way…' And it had come to my mind, as I was speaking so generously, that it must have been a gift from the Holy Ghost. 'You know, I don’t know how to explain it, well, imagine you are having a slice of bread or toasts for breakfast, and you find a mouse tail inside, would you stop eating? Well, you would go to another bakery next time. So, I do not know what was in there, what was that person doing, or not doing precisely. Nothing could be considered as clear there, thus, I will not comment on that account. I have faith.' Then I was given a paper with a red inscription on it, and they attached it to my cadre file. They hand it over to me eventually, so I have it hidden. A religious fanatic – with an exclamation mark on it, written in red and underlined. That have stayed with me forever."
"They would always turn the sirens on but once… as Vienna used to be bombed almost every day. Americans would fly from Italy to bomb Vienna and Lower Austria. Then, Brno was under attack one day, and the weather was terrible. They always chose two places to destroy – the target and one place as a replacement – as I learned later. Thus, Brno was actually a replacement. So the sirens remained silent, although Austria was already under attack. They would have to turn on the horns every day otherwise, and that would mean…because on such occasion, everyone had to leave work, leave everything still, go to cellars, and to shelters. So, the bombs started falling down, I did not see them but could hear the humming - it was the bombs smashing the Údolní Street. At the time, there used to be an abandoned brickworks across the street; there were no houses standing, so I could see it. Bombs were exploding one by one below the St. Anne's hospital. There is a row of houses standing behind the hospital where the cracks are still visible today. There is also a park, and so on. That was the place where the bombs exploded. Well, I saw the bombs exploding from a window. When I saw the horror, I said: 'Bombing!' I turned towards my Mom, or whoever was standing there at the time: 'Let's go to the cellar!' Only then the sirens started. So these are such horrendous experiences. Or desperate, more precisely - what else could have been done about that? Nothing at all.“
Radomil Kaláb was born on May 31, 1930, in Brno, into a family of a civil service law attorney. During the war, he experienced dramatic moments, as he would hear shots of executions performed at the Kounic‘s dorms, and the frequent bombing destroying houses in the closest neighborhood. After graduation from grammar school, he studied at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Brno and graduated as a construction manager in 1953. He also worked at the Research Institute of Building Constructions. During his studies, he began to search for God intensively, read religious literature and studied theology in private. He met with a priest named Stanislav Krátký, who brought him into the secret church of the Felix Maria Davídko‘s circle. Radomil continued in his spiritual formation and received a priesthood ordination on April 4, 1968.
Moreover, as a secret priest, he was a spiritual leader of several communities, serviced Holy Masses, and taught theology. He did not escape the State Security‘s attention; nevertheless, the officials had never taken action against him. Radomil became a researcher at the Department of Building Materials and Testing Methods but was not allowed to teach due to his cadre profile. This changed only after 1990 when he obtained the title of associate professor and led the research centre for one year. However, he left the institution with an intention to serve as a public Catholic priest, and he worked in several parishes located in Brno. In 2014, he was awarded the title of monsignor by Pope Francis.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
