The Roman Catholic Church returned the St. Vitus Cathedral - one of the most majestic Prague landmarks amid Prague Castle, seat of Czech presidents - to the state, reports said Monday.
The Church, represented by the Metropolitan Chapter, and the presidential office have been fighting over the cathedral in courts for almost 14 years.
Earlier this year, the Czech Supreme Court cancelled last year's verdict by a Prague municipal court that had led to placing the cathedral in the hands of the Church in the autumn last year.
While the Church was to return the property to the state following the supreme court ruling, it hesitated with the transfer.
After an initial feud and weeks of icy talks, the Prague Castle Administration and the chapter recently agreed to administer the cathedral together, and the Church proceeded with returning it.
The case now returns to the Prague 1 district court, which should hear it again on May 3.
The tug-of-war over the most celebrated Czech church illustrates resentments most Czechs traditionally hold towards organized religion.
The legal battle also underlines the yet-to-be-solved relations between Church and state, a politically unpopular issue that has been so far pushed aside by Czech democratic governments.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce