Havel is one of the great, courageous figures of the last 50 years. He described himself as a “lapsed Catholic.” He admired Pope John Paul II and said he “found himself confessing” during an audience in 1990.

Archbisop Duka will celebrate Havel’s funeral mass in Prague. Duka was imprisoned along with Havel by the Communists in the 1980s, and remained one of Havel’s friends.

CNS STORY: Prague archbishop remembers Havel as friend, fellow prisoner