CZECH CONTROL OF CHURCHES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25954, 7 November 1949, Page 7

CZECH CONTROL OF CHURCHES

CHANGE SOUGHT IN NEW LAWS

BISHOPS SEND PETITION TO GOVERNMENT (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright) (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) PRAGUE, Nov. 5. Czechoslovakia’s Roman Catholic bishops to-day issued the text of a petition they have addressed to the Government calling for revision of the new church laws. The petition condemned the laws for “unconstitutionally” taking away freedom to manage church affairs. It is signed by the Archbishop of Olomouc (Dr. Josef Matocha) and others of the hierarchy, nut not by the Archbishop of Prague (Dr. Josei Beran) nor his auxiliaries. The bishops said that the old system of church government. included feudal practices which should have been abolished. They claimed that the new laws reintroduced "feudal practices in the form of State patronage." The new laws, in the bishops’ view, failed to respect the autonomy of the Roman Catholic Church in the conduct and direction of religious matters, and the new State office for church affairs was given the right "to unlimited interference." The petition added: “The Catholic Church in this country has de facto been placed outside any legal standing. The State claims the right to fill vacancies in. spiritual offices and to refuse consent to nominations of clergymen for reasons of political ideology. This conflicts with a basic clause of the Constitution on freedom of worship. “The law does not respect the autonomy of the Church in the direction ana control of, matters of belief, morals, Divine service, church discipline, religious instruction, and membership of the Church, so that freedom of worship is not guaranteed. The performance of religion is exposed to the danger of being frustrated by political factors, and there is a great danger that in the execution of internal church matters the Church will be defamed and her spiritual activity valued from purely political points of view. “The Government should assure the Catholic Church of firm legal standing and independence of activity in its internal affairs by issuing a collective religious law.”