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Lukas Evzen Martinec is abbot of the Abbey of St Thomas in Brno, a position Gregor Mendel used to hold. Like his predecessor, Martinec has a scientific background- he trained as a civil engineer. He studied for the priesthood underground during the communist era, when the abbey was closed. The regime considered both Mendelian genetics and religion bourgeois and reactionary.

What inspired you to rekindle an interest in genetics at the abbey?

When I arrived in 1995, the abbey was in a sorry state. No proper repairs had been done for 50 years. There was also a growing public interest in genetics. My duty as successor to Mendel was to take note of this growing interest and pay respect to him and his discoveries. I realised it was necessary to present Mendel in a more modern way. I had learned a bit about how to stage exhibitions while I was studying theology in Italy and travelling around the world, so I decided to update the old exhibition about Mendel that had been here for 36 years and make it more interesting.

The redevelopment of the abbey as a centre for genetics was first suggested by Kim Nasmyth, director of the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. When I had the idea for a new exhibition, I asked Kim and his colleagues about sponsorship. They were very interested and agreed to help. But I did not expect them to act in such a generous way. I expected a small exhibition. It is a great pleasure for me to have such a beautiful exhibition here now. It is a small miracle.

What was the abbey like when you arrived?

Best not to ask. It looked like a building inhabited by foreign occupants who had no responsibilities as owners. There were several different tenants, including a machine construction company and a youth hostel. The communists objected to buildings of religious significance. There is a Benedictine abbey in Rajhrad, 15 kilometres from Brno, that was used by the communist army and it still looks as if it has been turned upside down by a horde of terrorist troops.

What happened to the abbey after the communists seized control in 1948?

It went from being an intellectual and religious centre to being ransacked and left to decline for 40 years. From the 1950s, there was no community here. Some of the friars were sent to work camps, others were imprisoned. Some were allowed to live normally, but not as a religious community. Religious communities were not allowed in Czechoslovakia under the communists. This only changed with the revolution in 1989. All religious buildings and institutions were affected. You can rebuild roofs and walls, but many items such as furniture and books were stolen and have not been returned. We were lucky here. We still have a library, even though hundreds of books disappeared.

Why did the communists oppress religious communities?

They were against religious orders because we elect our own leaders and have a certain freedom within the order. Our way of life is unusual, and the communists wanted to control the thinking of others. It started with the closing of the borders. They wanted to control the thinking of the people, which is inhuman. The churches opposed this totalitarianism, which is why the communists oppressed them.

What were their views on Mendelian genetics?

The Soviets were influenced by the Russian scientists Trofim Lysenko and Ivan Michurin, who emphasised the inheritance of characteristics acquired during a lifetime. They declared that Mendelian genetics, which emphasised the importance of characteristics inherited over generations, was bourgeois and reactionary. It was effectively banned. Everything to do with the Church was considered reactionary too. One day in 1950, soldiers arrived at the Abbey of St Thomas and told the friars they had just an hour to pack their most necessary things before taking them away to camps. I don’t know exactly what they did that day as no one who witnessed it is alive to tell the tale. But the abbey was shut down not only as a religious institution but also as a symbol of Mendelianism. The way they behaved here is an example of how they behaved against religion and culture in general. Soviet biology at that time was dominated by the thinking of Lysenko and Michurin. There was no space in their ideology for some abbot from Brno. It was all dictated from Moscow, whom the Czechs had to obey.

Like Mendel, you have a science background. But I hear you are also probably the only abbot with a certificate in Marxism-Leninism.

Quite possibly. Marxism was an obligatory subject at university, and you had to take a state exam in Marxism and Leninism besides all the other subjects. I decided it was a load of nonsense, and turned to the Church in my quest for the truth.

How did you come to the priesthood?

I wanted to study theology, but the communist authorities would not have taken me. They were very careful about whom they allowed to train for the priesthood. They never took educated people, and I had completed my studies at another technical university. So in 1981, at the age of 22, I decided to study underground, and in 1988 I was ordained by a bishop in Yugoslavia who was not afraid to do so.

What was it like studying religion underground?

It was difficult and dangerous. We had incredible luck in that those professors who had previously studied in Rome and Jerusalem, who were free from any ideological influence, were not allowed to teach at universities. We went to their houses and they taught us there. So we had much better teachers than the students who studied at state universities. Professors at official institutions were influenced by communism.

But the penalties of discovery must have been severe.

This was not an adventure. I was constantly on the move to avoid being detected. Studying theology underground was an action against the state. Had I been discovered, I would have been sacked from my job as a civil engineer, at the very least. Probably I would have been sent to jail. I knew a priest who was killed in his apartment. The communists had a plan to transform the official teaching of theology. But I am not the sort of person to fit into such a plan.

What inspired you to continue?

It was the search for truth, and the wish to become a priest.

Are you a rebel at heart?

I do not want to be in a pattern and I do not want to be one in a herd.

What did it feel like after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when you were finally free to act as a priest?

It was fine. I resigned from my job as a construction engineer at once. I worked for three weeks as a chaplain and then for 18 months as a parish priest in a little village with beautiful countryside near the mountains. Then I went to Rome where I studied theology for four years to earn my doctorate.

What is the significance of the exhibition for the abbey and for the Czech Republic?

The fact that we can put on this exhibition without any pressure from the outside about what we present in it-this in itself shows how important it is. I am happy that people can see it all without any ideological interference. In addition, people from all over the world cooperated in putting on this exhibition. The project has united people. It demonstrates the victories of good over evil, of intelligence over human foibles, and it challenges the false claim that faith, science, culture and religion are at odds.

Is there no conflict between science and religion?

Mendel showed that they can mix. We wouldn’t question that he was a religious man or that he was a scientist. God is not only love, God is wisdom. In his wisdom, he made everything, and he made the laws of nature. If a believing person is seeking these laws and trying to explore them, it is also an expression of his belief. It is something that can only please God. St Augustine said that if someone has talents, he must not let them sleep. So if someone has a talent for music, he shouldn’t be forced to become, say, a professor of mathematics. Mendel is a beautiful part of this mosaic. He had the possibility to be a scientist for the honour of God. I hope that Mendel is an inspirational figure. As a friar he worked, and he didn’t work in vain. If you want to use the word “rebel”, Mendel was a rebel in his time. He also could have had a quiet and comfortable life. But he had a vision, and he went ahead. He had to struggle a lot and renounce many things. I can’t see any conflict between real science and real belief.

What are your hopes for the future?

Part of the plan involves rebuilding the glasshouse where Mendel did his pea experiments, and to restore the apiary where he bred bees. As for the future, it’s difficult to say, because the child is just born and we have to see how it is going to develop. But as it has good parents, I hope that it will be wonderful.