‘You said you don’t have anything to read why you don’t take this?’ were the words of my friend who passed on me a recently published book titled: Decide for a Risk. With not very high expectations I accepted from her this interview-structured life story of Petr Esterka. All I could associate with this name was a fact that he is a Czech bishop living currently in the United States.The book completely captured all my attention already in the first chapter. My heart was beating fast while reading how 22 year-old Petr and his two friends were cutting through the electric wires of 5000 volts, barrier that was protecting the Czechoslovak border from the Austrian ‘capitalist enemies’. If the police guard spotted them they would be shot immediately or torn apart by the specially trained dogs…
Petr Esterka did not search for it but nevertheless his life has been one big adventure. Coming from a devoted Catholic family from the South Moravia, refused to accept the dictatorial regime of the communists and decided to leave the country in 1957. From the refugees’ camp in Austria he continued to Rome where he became a seminarian. After his priestly ordination in 1963 his path led to the United States where among the pastoral work he performed also as a university professor and a chaplain of the Air Force. In 1999 he became a bishop responsible for the Czech Catholic community living abroad.
Despite of the interview form of the book, Petr Esterka is not talking about himself, but about the world, people, his person usually stands on the side. He does not close his eyes in front of the problems; on the other hand he faces them. He seems very natural and surprisingly ‘normal’ in all his responses as he admits doubts and does not cover by a pose the reverence of his position. He does not have the tendency to polarize the world for the good and the bad, he does not condemn and he lives based on a motto: ‘hate sin – love sinner’ and he is very credible when he says it.
Petr Esterka did not search for it but nevertheless his life has been one big adventure. Coming from a devoted Catholic family from the South Moravia, refused to accept the dictatorial regime of the communists and decided to leave the country in 1957. From the refugees’ camp in Austria he continued to Rome where he became a seminarian. After his priestly ordination in 1963 his path led to the United States where among the pastoral work he performed also as a university professor and a chaplain of the Air Force. In 1999 he became a bishop responsible for the Czech Catholic community living abroad.
Despite of the interview form of the book, Petr Esterka is not talking about himself, but about the world, people, his person usually stands on the side. He does not close his eyes in front of the problems; on the other hand he faces them. He seems very natural and surprisingly ‘normal’ in all his responses as he admits doubts and does not cover by a pose the reverence of his position. He does not have the tendency to polarize the world for the good and the bad, he does not condemn and he lives based on a motto: ‘hate sin – love sinner’ and he is very credible when he says it.
The book was published in the Czech language under the title:
Rozhodni se pro risk, Petr Esterka v rozhovoru s Alešem Palánem
Karmelitánské nakladatelství Kostelní Vydří, 2007
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