The Prague Cardinal Dominik Duka is dead. He died early on Tuesday morning at the age of 82 in the Central Military Hospital in Prague, according to the archdiocese, which Duka headed from 2010 to 2022.

Duka was born on 26 April 1943 in Hradec Kralove (Königgrätz). He secretly joined the Dominican order in 1968 and was ordained a priest in 1970. After the communists withdrew his licence to serve as a priest, he worked for 15 years as a draughtsman in the Skoda car manufacturer's factory in Plzen (Pilsen). At the same time, he secretly continued to work for his order.

From 1986 to 1998, Duka finally headed the Dominican Order in Bohemia and Moravia as provincial. In 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of his home town of Hradec Kralove. In February 2010, Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Prague. Two months later, the Czech bishops elected him as their chairman. In 2012, Benedict appointed him to the College of Cardinals.

Too much closeness between church and state?

On reaching the prescribed age limit of 75 for bishops in April 2018, Duka offered Pope Francis his resignation. Previously, around 100 lay Catholics had written to the Pope calling on him to no longer remain in office. They complained of a tendency "towards nationalism and right-wing extremists", "uncritical support for the Islamophobic President Milos Zeman" and excessive closeness between church and state.

However, Francis left Duka in the office of Archbishop of Prague until 2022. He was succeeded by Jan Graubner (77), previously Archbishop of Olomouc for 30 years.

Duka's death reduces the number of cardinals in the universal church to 246, 127 of whom are under 80 years old and would be eligible to vote in a possible papal election. (KNA)