Pope Benedict XVI’s three-day visit to the Czech Republic was capped off with an open-air mass in Stará Boleslav which coincided with St. Wenceslas Day. The symbolism was obvious; a mass on the name-day of the Czech patron saint, in the town where he was murdered. His visit was intended to serve as an appeal to the generally God-less Czechs to remember the importance of the Christian tradition in Europe and to see the Catholic church as an important alternative to the rising levels of consumerism and hypermarketisation prevalent in the country since the fall of Communism. But to most of these God-less Czechs, St. Wenceslaus Day is just another national holiday; in fact, it is more likely to be important to them because it is also celebrated as the Day of Czech Statehood (and a nice day off work).

In a country where people believe in little more than looking each other in the eye and declaring, “Kamenej!” before downing their pivo, an old German preaching religious doctrine can only seem a bit out of place and out of touch with any number of realities. Images of traditionally-garbed believers at the Stará Boleslav mass seem like throw-back relics of a highly romanticised sense of Czech nationalist identity; symbolic and nostalgic rather than representative of the country as it is today. Czech atheism is too well-entrenched for Pope Benedict’s visit to have any discernible impact; if the Czechs are anything, they are generally too blasé and cynical to pay much attention.

But nonetheless, I can’t help but make a certain observation about the Czechs; for all of their cynicism, they do recognise some of the problems stressed by the Pope (although they would loathe to admit it). On countless occasions, I’ve heard my Czech friends bemoan the arrival of Starbucks on Malostranské náměstí or the completion of a new mall across from the Obeční dům. While grocery shopping at the huge Metropole Zličín for Canadian Thanksgiving in Prague last year, my good friend remarked with disgust, as we pushed the trolley to the full parking lot that, “it’s terrible, all of these people should be home with their families, not out shopping!” Having never though of my friend as a particularly great family-man, the comment made me laugh; but there is something to be said for such remarks.

The sense of Ostalgie that many in the post-Communist region have experienced speaks to the difficulties faced by individuals in adjusting to the larger economic and political transitions of the last two decades. While many will certainly not turn to religion of any kind as they re-adjust their thinking and re-align their values, the gulf between large-scale atheism and a small minority of believers is indicative of the on-going process of social identities creation in the Czech Republic.