Mgr. Joel Ruml

"That was absolutely touching. I recall someone knocking on the door during our office hours, and an old gentleman came in. He held documents in his hand and started to open them in front of us, saying how the communists had hurt him, taken his fields, his farm, maybe even his children, though I don't recall exactly. So now he's bringing it out there, trusting that the Civic Forum will sort it out and fix it. That was touching. See, no doubt the future developments were going in the direction where this kind of injustice would be called out and addressed, and it was. But at that point, the gentleman was expecting quicker action. Obviously. He had suffered for decades. For decades, these people remembered what generations had built and owned, and the communists took it away from them and ruined or destroyed it. The Civic Forum is the hope now. That was really a very powerful moment, realising we were not able to intervene in a situation like this. Of course we talked to him and asked questions and discussed things, but we were kind of helpless, yet there was also a hope that things would change, but with a helplessness to help people like this immediately."

"I'll tell you a story. When I was in high school in Jihlava, the headmaster was replaced, and an order came that everyone had to join the Labour Day parade. I lived in Opatov, commuting to Jihlava. I came home with that, and my dad locked himself in the study. I could hear him typing. Then he brought it to me and said, 'Give this to your class teacher.' I took the delivery and gave it to my teacher the next day. She was very enlightened, like this classical professor, very perceptive. She opened it and gave it to me to read. It said something like, 'Mrs So and So, our son Joel Ruml, born then and there, will never participate in such idolatries as the Labour Day celebration.' And maybe 'Thank you for handling this' or what, 'Jiří Ruml, father.' I thought this was absolutely impressive. You know, when the kid - even though I was maybe sixteen years old - gets into a bind, because the rest of the class would go, suddenly the father steps up. The professor really took it that way. I was excused and didn't have to go. I don't know whether she told the principal and got scolded. She certainly did get scolded when I applied to study theology; the principal scolded her. But she held her ground because she just knew; I think she even rooted for me."