I have a family, a wife and a child. Lukáš Engelmann, a religious Roman Catholic priest, surprised with a surprising confession. It happened during Sunday mass in the church in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí. The priest has already asked to be released from priestly service.
Violation of celibacy in Frýdlanta nad Ostravicí. | Video: Radek Luksza
“I would like to share a personal matter with you. I would like to tell you that I have family. That means wife and child. I perceive and fully live my responsibility for them,” the forty-four-year-old priest admitted to his parishioners church St. Bartholomew. At the same moment, the Ostrava-Opava Bishop Martin David also informed the faithful about the same thing in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Ostrava-Třebovice, where the priest used to work. And he thanked him for everything he had done for Catholics.
Lukáš Engelmann’s superiors were informed in advance. “These days, he is submitting a request to be released from priestly duties, i.e. the so-called retirement from priestly service. He went into seclusion. They no longer serve any public services,” said Ondřej Elbel, spokesman for the Ostrava-Opava diocese.
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According to his words, the priest tried to perform his service to the best of his knowledge and conscience. “Above all, I want to apologize to everyone I offended, shocked, disappointed, saddened, angered or insecure. I did not want that. I’m sorry, I apologize,” said the now former spiritual administrator of the Frýdlant parish, who was ordained a priest eighteen years ago. He also worked as a chaplain and deacon in Místek and as a parish priest in Ostrava-Třebovice. In Frýdlant nad Ostravicí he was from the summer of 2022. Among other things, he devoted himself to the disabled and provided pastoral care to homosexuals.
“We liked him very much,” agreed the believers from Frýdlan, whom Deník spoke to after one of the services held in the church of St. Bartholomew by the local parish vicar Václav Rylk. “We are praying for him to get an exemption and be able to continue to be a priest,” said one of the participants in the mass. According to another, only God has the right to judge Engelmann.
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“I know that you liked and still like Father Lukáš. That pain and other negative emotions should not overshadow all the good he did in the parish and for other communities and individuals. I am grateful to him for that,” said the bishop of the Ostrava-Opava diocese to the community of believers Martin David.
Lukáš Engelmann’s breach of celibacy was already known to his predecessor, the deceased bishop František Václav Lobkowicz. And after the arrival of Bishop Martin David as the head of the diocese, the priest came to discuss the next procedure with him as well. Subsequently, he decided to file a request to be released from the obligations arising from priestly ordination and to retire from priestly service. Engelmann’s situation will be solved only in The Vatican.
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After the departure of Lukáš Engelmann, assistant priest Vojtěch Mičan and the priests of the Místek deanery, including the episcopal vicar Daniel Vícha, began to serve in the Frýdlan parish. Communities of believers continue to gather. “The episcopal vicar is available to them for spiritual conversations while they are waiting for a new priest. For the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava, it is a priority that this wait be as short as possible,” added its spokesman Ondřej Elbel.
