A new Czech expert group is to again deal with the Czech-Vatican treaty that has been agreed on with the Vatican, but the Czech Chamber of Deputies rejected it in 2003, Deputy Culture Minister Jaromir Talir told CTK Tuesday. He confirmed the Euro.cz server's information according to which the group is to comprise besides Talir also Deputy Foreign Minister Hynek Kmonicek, Ambassador to the Vatican Pavel Vosalik and Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka.
The server also writes that a new version of the treaty is allegedly being drafted.
Prime Minister Jan Fischer, however, said during his last year's visit to the Vatican that his caretaker government will not deal with the issue because it does not have the necessary mandate.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout will visit the Vatican on Wednesday next week.
Kmonicek, Talir and Vosalik Tuesday attended a memorial mass for Czech Cardinal Tomas Spidlik in the Vatican.
Spidlik died in the Vatican last Friday, aged 90.
The mass was also attended by Pope Benedict XVI.
Talir told CTK by phone from Italy Tuesday that the group has not yet been officially formed.
He said it could reconsider the text, perhaps make some additions to it or write an accompanying text, and then submit it for ratification again.
The future of the treaty will be up to the government that will emerge from the end-May general election.
The Vatican still waits for ratification of the treaty that defines the status of the Roman Catholic and Graeco Catholic churches in the Czech Republic.
The Vatican is against any changes to the text being made.
However, the Czech political parties differ in their stands on the treaty. Yet Duka, who replaced Cardinal Miloslav Vlk as Prague Archbishop on April 10, says he believes there is hope for completing the process of ratification of the treaty.
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