Sunday, April 15, 2012

Klaus not to enter debate on church restitution any more

Czech President Vaclav Klaus does not want to enter the political debate on the return of the churches' property any more since he considers it closed, he wrote in a letter to Cardinal Dominik Duka on the occasion of his two years in the post of Prague Archbishop.

In connection with the government bill on church restitution, Klaus recently said he asked a question whether the chosen principle was correct conceptually.

In his letter to Duka, the primate of the Czech Catholic Church, Klaus noted that a media case had been created of his statement. His words differed from what various commentators wrote in the media, he added.

"However, I do not intend to enter the current political debate any more since I consider it closed," Klaus wrote.

The government agreed with 17 churches in the Czech Republic in late 2011 on the payment of 59 billion crowns to them over a period of 30 years starting in 2013. 

Inflation could raise the sum to 78.9 up to 96.24 billion crowns.

The churches are also to get back 56 percent of the property that was confiscated from them after communists seized power in 1948. 

The property settlement aims at putting an end to the financing of churches by the state.

Some critics of the bill point out that the state lacks money for the financial compensation to churches during the current economic crisis.

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD), for instance, propose that the financial compensation of 59 billion crowns be deleted from the bill.

"I do not think that the question of the restitution of church property is whether we can afford it now. This does not worry me so much. I have since the time immemorial asked to what extent it is a correctly chosen principle conceptually. I can see a number of question marks in this respect," Klaus said last week.

The constitutional-legal committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, is now debating the bill.