• In a time of rapid social and cultural change there could hardly be a more opportune moment for identifying the signs of the secular culture. Templeton Prize winner, Mgr Prof. Tomáš Halík, will discuss the theme of ‘Reading the Signs of the Secular Culture’ during the 2018 Discern Annual Lecture which will be held on Tuesday, 6th November 2018, at The Old Refectory of the Archbishop’s Curia in Floriana, at 7 p.m. The general public is invited to attend.

      Prof. Tomáš Halík was born in Prague in 1948 and is Professor of the Sociology of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies at Charles University in Prague. 

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  • He specializes in philosophy of religion and sociology of religion, interreligious dialogue and dialogue between believers and non-believers.

    In 1972, Prof. Halík was labelled an “enemy of the regime” by the Communist government of the then Czechoslovakia and was banned from university teaching. Clandestinely ordained priest in 1978 and spent nearly two decades organising and building an “underground university” and an “underground Church” made of philosophers and theologians who prepared for a new democratic era. Those years of groundwork and counselling to liberation leaders such as Václav Havel and Cardinal František Tomášek helped Czechoslovakia transition to democracy following the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

    Since the fall of Communism, he served as General Secretary to the Czech Conference of Bishops and has lectured at a number of universities and international scientific conferences in Europe, in the USA, Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America and Southern Africa.

    Prof. Halík received several prizes for literature, for merits for intercultural and interreligious dialogue, and for merits for human rights and spiritual freedom. In 1992, Pope John Paul II appointed him advisor to the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers, and in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI granted him the title of Monsignor-Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in recognition of his scholarly and pastoral merits. Tomáš Halík was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize in 2014.