Rudolf Baláž

Rudolf Baláž ( born November 20, 1940 in Nevoľné, Banskobystrický kraj, Slovakia, † July 27, 2011 in Banská Bystrica ) was Roman Catholic Bishop of Banská Bystrica.

Life

Rudolf Baláž studied from 1958 to 1963 at the Roman Catholic Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava and received on 23 June 1963, the priesthood, although he had been expelled by the communist governance temporarily from the study. He was vicar in Brezno (1963 /65) and Krupina (1965 /67). In Kláštor pod Znievom he was Kaplan (1967 /68) and in Banská Bystrica actuary in the diocesan administration (1968 /70). After working as a parish administrator in Pitelová (1970 /71) to him the state permission was withdrawn, including any pastoral activities. He was from 1971 to 1982 tractor and a truck driver in an agricultural cooperative. In 1982, he was able to obtain work as a priest and was until 1990 the parish administrator in Turčiansky Peter.

Pope John Paul II appointed him in 1990 to the bishop of Banská Bystrica (German Neusohl ). The episcopal consecration on March 19, 1990 Jozef Cardinal Tomko gave him, the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; Co-consecrators were Ján Sokol, Auxiliary Bishop of Trnava, and Ján Chryzostom Korec SJ, Bishop of Nitra. He was 1994-2000 President of the Slovak Catholic Bishops' Conference, and since 2003 its Vice President.

Baláž died unexpectedly in ordinariate in Banská Bystrica from the effects of embolism.

Work

Rudolf Baláž was an outspoken opponent of the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar. He was very active against the government decisions against the minorities of Hungarians and Roma, in particular, he was opposed to the 1996 approved by Cabinet Meciar Law on the Protection of the Republic. Baláž had a search warrant to go through the police for alleged illegal art trade. The situation was also reflected in the increasingly tense relations between the Vatican and the Slovak State; only with the government Mikuláš Dzurinda entered a positive change.