Pavel was born in 1974 in Slavičín, Czech Republic. He joined the Jesuits in 1992 and, after finishing his novitiate in 1994, was sent to study philosophy in Munich, Germany. Between 1996 and 1998 he did his regency back in Brno, Czech Republic. From 1998 he studied theology at Milltown Park, Dublin and went on to gain a Masters in Systematic Theology at Heythrop College, London. In 2002 was ordained priest and, from February 2003 until September 2011, worked in university chaplaincy in Olomouc, Czech Republic.