Members of the Czech Bishopric Conference (CBK) Thursday confirmed the structure of controlling mechanisms the Catholic church will use when administering the property that is to be returned to it from the state, CBK spokeswoman Monika Vyvodova has told CTK.The rules were set down at the CBK meeting in Velehrad, south Moravia, in July.
The parishes will have the limit of 50,000 crowns to deal with the property that they will only be allowed to cross with the consent of the diocese, Vyvodova said.
Based on an agreement between the CBK and the Conference of Senior Representatives of Male and Female Orders, an expert commission will check whether the management fulfils the demands to deal with the property in a transparent way, to the benefit of the church's pastoral and social work.
The Chamber of Deputies passed the bill returning the former property confiscated by the communist regime to 17 churches on July 14. The left-dominated Senate, the upper house, turned it down on August 15 as expected.
The government will need at least an absolute majority of 101 votes in the 200-seat lower house to outvote the senators' veto. Deputies will deal with the bill again in September.
Under the government bill, churches are to be returned land and real estate worth 75 billion and given 59 billion crowns in financial compensation for unreturned property during the following 30 years.
The largest sum, 47 billion crowns, would go to the Roman Catholic Church.
The state is to gradually cease financing the churches. The transitional period is to last 17 years.
The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) sharply criticise the government-proposed property return to the churches, especially the financial compensation.
The CSSD calls the government bill a gift to the churches in its campaign ahead of the autumn Senate and regional elections.
The bishops also agreed that the limit of February 25, 1948, the day of the Communist coup, which is a general threshold for the return of property, will not be broken by the passing of the legislation.
The CSSD argues that this may happen.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday he would not sign the bill on the return of church property into law unless Prime Minister Petr Necas guarantees that the law would not break the 1948 deadline and would not be applied to older cases.