STATE AID TO RELIGION IN GERMANY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1996, 28 May 1875, Page 3

STATE AID TO RELIGION IN GERMANY.

The bill which has been introduced into the German Senate for "withdrawing the State subsidies from Roman Catholic dioceses" consists of fifteen paragraphs, as follows ■:—" 1. From the day of the publication of this law all State grants^ to bishops, clergy, and diocesan institutions shall ■ cease; in the Roman- Catholic dioceses of Prussia, and in those portions of the dioceses of Prague, Olmiiti!, Freiburg, and Mainz, which are under Prussian rule. The clergy belonging to public State institutions are alone excepted from' this law. * 2. The subsidies thus withdrawn shall be again paid, so soon as the. bishop of any diocese, or the administrator of the same, shall declare in writing to the Government his acknowledgement of the laws of the State. 3 and 4 appoint; the same regulations to I^WJfiijrto,the vacated dioceses of Posen $md Paderborn, and to any that may "be vacated in a similar way. 6. In the cases of separate clergymen, who shall declare in writing their obedience to

the laws, the State . pay may be, continuedu 7—-10 determine the manner in which, the: confiscated supply; shall" be used, and authorises the necessary expenditure for administering the secular affairs of the dioceses. 11. If any cleric shall' withdraw at'any subsequent time his •written engagement to obey the.law, or shall tacitly disobey the law. ?he shall be deposed from his office. 12 and 13 settle the manner of carrying out the sentence of deposition, and authorise the Supreme Church Court to give sentence in the case. 14. Any cleric who shall perform any official act after his deposition shall be'fined for the first offence up to £15, and for a repetition^ of the act up t© £150.