Dominik Duka

Dominik Jaroslav Duka, O.P. (26 April 1943 – 4 November 2025) was a Czech Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Prague from 2010 to 2022. He was made a cardinal in 2012. He was also a member of the Dominican Order.

Duka served as Bishop of Hradec Králové from 1998 to 2010. He was the spiritual protector and chaplain general of the Orléans obedience of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem from 2012 to 2021.

Early life Duka was born on 26 April 1943 in Hradec Králové in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now in the Czech Republic). His father was an army officer who fought for the allied forces in World War II, based at RAF Cosford, who was later imprisoned in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. From 1986 to 1998, he was Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in Bohemia and Moravia. From 1990 to 1998, he was a lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at Palacký University in Olomouc, teaching Introduction to Sacred Scripture and biblical anthropology.

Bishop On 6 June 1998, Duka was appointed bishop of Hradec Králové. He received episcopal consecration on 26 September 1998. On 13 February 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Prague.

One of Duka's chief concerns was the long-standing issue of the restitution of church property, which had been confiscated by the communist regime and which was either never fully returned or for which the church never received compensation. The Czech Republic is one of the last countries in Europe not to have ratified a treaty with the Holy See.

On 23 December 2011, Duka presided at the funeral liturgy of Václav Havel.

Cardinal Duka gives the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, a private tour of St. Wenceslas Chapel inside St. Vitus Cathedral on 12 August 2020

On 18 February 2012, Duka was made cardinal priest of Santi Marcellino e Pietro by Pope Benedict XVI. On 21 April 2012, he was appointed a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Duka was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

Duka contributed to a book, Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family, which urged fellow church leaders to maintain the church's rules regarding marriage and strengthen Catholic education about marriage and family life. The book was released before the international Synod of Bishops on the Family held in 2014 and 2015.

In May 2016, Duka said that the pope could not fully understand the European migrant crisis because he is not from Europe. Duka frequently spoke against Muslim immigration into Europe. He said that Islam had "violent tendencies", and that Muslims could only be considered a "safe presence" if they made up less than five percent of the population. In 2016, Halík criticized Duka for allegedly dissociating himself from the pope and for being too close to Czech president Miloš Zeman, as well as for accepting the highest state award from Zeman in October 2016.

In February 2018, a group of Czech Catholic laymen wrote a letter to Pope Francis, expressing concern about Duka's closeness to Czech politicians including Václav Klaus, Miloš Zeman and Tomio Okamura, and urging him not to extend Duka's term as archbishop when he submitted his resignation as required upon turning 75 in April 2018. On 13 May 2022, Pope Francis accepted Duka's resignation as archbishop.

Later life and death On 18 September 2025, Duka celebrated a Requiem Mass for murdered American political activist Charlie Kirk at the Church of Our Lady before Týn. The Mass was attended by hundreds of worshippers, including politicians, while dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of the church to hold banners describing Kirk as "fascist, racist and sexist". Catholic historian Jaroslav Šebek criticized Duka for celebrating a Mass with a "political dimension".

Duka died on 4 November 2025 at the age of 82, a day after being hospitalised at the Central Military Hospital in Prague where he had undergone surgery several weeks earlier.

Awards and honours On 28 October 2001, Duka was awarded the I Grade Medal of Merit for the Czech Republic by President Havel. On 28 October 2016, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion. Doctor honoris causa from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (15 November 2010) Grand Cross and Chaplain General of the Orleans obedience of the Order of Saint Lazarus. Duka was stripped of the Grand Cross and his appointment as Chaplain General was revoked by exclusion from the Order by Grand Master Count Jan Dobrzenský z Dobrzenicz on 1 January 2021. On 19 November 2024, Duka was awarded the 25th Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award at the Palffy Palace, Bratislava, by the Prague Society for International Cooperation and Global Panel Foundation, to mark the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.