A memorandum urging the quick settlement of relations between churches and the Czech state was given by its authors yesterday to Czech Culture Minister Václav Jehlička (Christian Democrats, KDU-ČSL), who is in charge of church issues.The memorandum, which was drafted in the form of a petition one year ago, demands the settlement of the problem of church property and the quick signing of an agreement between the Czech Republic and the Vatican.
Its authors presented it to the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
"The fact that the relations between the state and churches have not been fully settled prevents churches' activities to the benefit of Czech society," the memorandum says.
Its authors voice concern over the passage of an amendment to the law on churches that limit their constitutional rights and over the failure to settle the question of the return of former church property.
They point out that the agreement with the Vatican would settle the Czech state relation toward 2.75 million of Czech Catholics.The Czech Republic is one of the few European countries not to have signed an agreement with the Vatican.
In the past, Czech President Václav Klaus expressed his disagreement with the draft agreement.
Cardinal Miloslav Vlk criticised Klaus for signing the amendment to the church law which was passed in parliament by the votes of the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and the Communists (KSČM).
The churches questioned the provision on the registration of charities and church educational institutions that they believe limit their right to establish their institutions independently from the state and contradicts the Constitutional Court ruling from 2004.
A group of 25 senators filed a new constitutional complaint over the provision last year.
Senate deputy chairman Jiří Sneberger (Civic Democrats, ODS) who received the memorandum, said he would hand it over to the Senate petition committee and believed that the Senate would discuss it at its session.
Sneberger did not even rule out that the Senate might organise a public hearing on the memorandum.
"The situation must certainly be settled. The worst is the state of insecurity. There was not much will to deal with the issue in the past," Sneberger told CTK.
The memorandum was drafted by the Moravian and Silesian Christian Academy, the Society for a Dialogue between Church and State in cooperation with the Confederation of Political Prisoners and the Cyril and Methodius Matica under the auspices of Archbishop Karel Otcenášek.
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