Tuesday's discovery came in the opening phase of a £10.6m facelift project in the city's landmark Wenceslas Square, scene of the some of the Czech Republic's most dramatic historic events and a frequent site of political protest. Read more

Czech Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, who washed windows and ministered underground during communism, died of cancer on March 18 in Prague at the age of 84.

The retired archbishop of Prague was elected the first East European president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences and dedicated his term to rebuilding the Church and society after communism in the East and defending Christian values in the face of secularism and materialism in the West.

In a telegram to Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague, Pope Francis recalled "with admiration" the late cardinal's "tenacious fidelity to Christ despite the privation and persecution against the Church."

The Pope also praised his fruitful ministry, which was driven by a desire to share the joy of the Gospel with everyone and promote "an authentic ecclesial renewal" that was always faithful to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Born May 17, 1932, in Lisnice, Czechoslovakia, he studied history at Prague's Charles University, earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Prague and was a trained archivist.

Ten years after he was ordained a priest in 1968, the communist regime revoked his license to engage in priestly ministry. The regime persecuted clerics, imprisoning them and forcing them into menial jobs; he spent the next 10 years washing windows of government buildings.

However, he continued to minister in secret, like other barred priests, and maintained contacts with students and dissident groups.

"The will of God can be different in different moments of our life," he said in 1991. "Sometimes it is his will that I wash the windows and other times to be archbishop."

In the years following his 1988 return to open ministry as a priest, Cardinal Vlk and his homeland faced many changes, including massive anti-government protests.

St John Paul II appointed the then-57-year-old priest to be Bishop of Ceske Budejovice in February 1990, two months after Czechoslovakia's 40-year communist regime was overthrown by a popular and largely nonviolent uprising. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Herald, article from Catholic News Service
• Image: The Telegraph

The problem has its roots in a rectangular tent made of black plastic that looks like an oversized mobile wardrobe. It's as tall as a man, almost completely odor-tight and provides space for four fully grown cannabis plants. The "Growshop" in the Prague city district of Zižkov sells the tent for the equivalent of €400 ($520), including a fan, ventilation ducts, a 400 Watt spotlight, fertilizer and a bag of potting soil. It's easy to set up this black contraption at home and start growing your own weed. Any 14-year-old can do it — and that's the problem. The market is flooded with marijuana.

"Prices are falling," says Marek, a local dealer with a hairdo that looks like a wire wig. He has picked out a restaurant near the Charles Bridge, where he orders goulash with mashed potatoes and complains about declining profits. The dope-dealing business has seen better days, he says. He currently gets 1,500 crowns, or roughly €60 ($78), for 10 grams of weed. Regular customers — who Marek prefers to calls "friends" — buy on credit.

To avoid boring his "friends," he regularly brings them samples of new strains. "White Widow" is currently doing well, meaning that it gets you high as a kite. Marek stresses that his product is far better than what the competition offers. "My stuff is grown with love, not like the shit that the Vietnamese produce. They grow their weed in warehouses." The Vietnamese are the second problem. Marek says they only care about business, not quality, like the Czech growers do. They aren't devoted to the art of gardening, he claims.

Both Marek and his suppliers benefit from the fact that reefer has become an integral part of Czech folklore since the early 1990s, like pilsner beer and dumplings with sauce. Half of all Czechs between the ages of 15 and 34 have smoked pot at least once in their lives. According to statistics by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the Czech Republic ranks among the top cannabis-smoking nations in Europe, right up there with Italy and Spain. Continue reading

Sources

• Spiegel Online
• Image: The Prague Post