User:ResearcherSVK/Štefan Fogaš

Mons. ICDr. Štefan Fogaš (* December 13 1924, Šarišská Trstená, Slovensko –† March 28 1974, Paríž, Francúzsko) he was the first Slovak diplomat in the service Holy See.

Youth and study
Štefan was born into a large peasant family of Ján Fogaš and Katarína Fogašová, b. Onuferova shortly after the establishment of the first Czecho-Slovak Republic. He completed his primary education at the People's School in the neighboring village ofChmeľovec. After graduating in 1938, he began studying at the Slovak Evangelical Collegiate Grammar School.

In 1945, Štefan, together with his classmates from the gymnasium, participated in the reconstruction work connected with the end of the Second World War. They worked "mainly on the construction of the bridge in Kysak, then on the repair of the railway line in Veľká Lodina, the station in Prešov and on the repair of the bridge in Demjata. In the following school year 1945/46, he completed his high school studies with a high school diploma. At that time, the gymnasium had already been state-owned for a year.

Theological studies and priesthood
It was subsequently accepted by the bishop and apostolic administrator of the Košice diocese ThDr. Jozef Čársky to study at the priestly seminary of St. Charles Borromeo in Košicie. He finally completed his studies in Rome, where he was sent by Bishop Čárskytogether with other compatriots (Jozef Tomko, František Fuga, Andrej Šinal).

In the Pontifical College of St. John of Nepomuck, intended for seminarians from all Czech-Slovak dioceses, completed his next priestly formation. He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He was ordained a priest on July 8 1951.

After being ordained as a priest, like many others, he could not return to Slovakia due to the advent of the communist regime in the country. For this reason, he worked as a chaplain in the north of Italy for the first two years.

Štúdium diplomacie
In 1954, he returned to study at his alma mater, the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, where he continued to study civil and ecclesiastical law. At the same time, he also studied diplomacy at the Pontifical Church Academy as the first Slovak priest ever. On May 14, 1959, he received his doctorate in canon and ecclesiastical law after defending his dissertation on the Pavlovian privilege.

In the diplomatic service of the Holy See
In the diplomatic services of the Holy See, he worked in Nicaragua and Honduras (1959 – 1963), Argentina (1963  – 1968), the Republic of South Africa  (1968  – 1970), Iraq (1970  – 1974) and most recently as an adviser to the nunciature in Belgium and an observer of the Vatican at the European Parliament (CEE) (1974  – March 28, 1974).

On August 1,,1960, he was awarded the title of Msgr. (Monsignore), that is, the papal chaplain. Today, this title is presented as Mons.

Visiting the homeland
The opportunity to return to the homeland came only after 1968, when thanks to the relaxed measures of Alexander Dubček and the Prague Spring. Msgr. During his work in the asylum, Fogaš also remembered his native village and its inhabitants. There was no church in the village, only a small chapel of St. Ján Nepomucký, because of which people had to walk several kilometers to the neighboring villages. On his initiative, in 1968/69, the self-help construction of a church dedicated to Christ the King began according to his personal wish. Thanks to his diplomatic passport, he managed to enter the territory of the ČSSR in 1970, 1971, 1972. Not one of the visits escaped the attention of the State Security. At the last visit, the church was completed and awaiting ordination. It was rejected several times by the Ministry of Culture of the Czechoslovak Republic and other standardization authorities. The consecration was supposed to take place in 1974 on the occasion of the anniversary of the priestly ordination of Mons. Fogaš. It finally took place half a year after his death.

Death and repatriation
Msgr. Štefan Fogaš died suddenly at the age of 49 in the premises of the apostolic monastery in Paris. This happened after arriving from Belgium in the morning hours of Thursday, March 28, 1974. He was supposed to attend the conference of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, as a delegate of the Holy See.

After the intervention of the Vatican at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Italy, his remains were to be transported to his native village of Šarišská Trstená, where he was to be buried. For unclear reasons, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czechoslovak Republic canceled the consent to the transfer, and so the day before the funeral, he was finally transferred to Rome, where he was buried in the presence of his mother, brothers and sister. On this occasion, they were also received by the then Pope Paul VI.

After 33-three years, on December 12, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in the presence of the then Archbishop of Košice, Mons. Alojza Tkáč's remains were transported and deposited at the entrance to the local cemetery.. The inhabitants of the village remember their native to this day.

Literatúra

 * FOGAČ, Štefan. In: