Restitution of Property to Catholic Church in Czech Republic Accompanied with Dirt Campaign Against the Church
A controversial campaign by the oppositional Social Democrats directed against the Church Property Restitution Bill has turned into a major brawl with Czech Catholics and other churches.
The Czech government’s plan to give the churches and religious groups back property nationalized by the communist regime in the 1950s is highly unpopular among Czechs. In various surveys, up to 70 percent of those polled said they did not agree with the plan to return some 135 billion crowns, or nearly 5 billion Euros, worth of property – around half of which should come in the form of financial compensation. However, its supporters point out that the devolution will be over a 30 year period in quantities that are equivalent to the current government subsidies received by the religious institutions. The restitution would make the churches independent of government subsidies after this period has been completed. The bill for the restitution of church property was passed in November 2012 and will take effect with President Vaclav Klaus neither signing it or vetoing it showing his reservations about the law. He declared that the law had been very divisive amongst the political parties but that not passing it could also prove destabilising. The Social Democrats have led an aggressive campaign against the restitution law. The campaign includes posters, billboards and other materials depicting a hand in a blue sleeve – a reference to the centre-right coalition parties – giving a sack, presumably filled with money, to another hand in a priest’s ornate. The picture is accompanied by a slogan accusing the Civic Democrat and TOP 09 parties of planning to donate 134 billion crowns to the churches. In a joint statement for the press, church officials said the “electioneering propaganda of the Social Democrats” was similar to the anti-Semitic and anti-clerical posters of the Third Reich “later painted red” by the Czech communist ideologues. The Social Democrats showed no regrets about the form of the campaign. They called the churches’ statement ‘scandalous’, and retaliated with an attack on the Catholic Church, questioning its role in the wartime Slovak state, a satellite of Nazi Germany. Social Democrat MP Jan Hamáček is in charge of his party’s campaign. Referring to a ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court which upheld the churches’ right to their former property, the head of Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Dominik Duka, explained what made the churches act: “We understand there might be objections against the bill. But disrespecting a ruling by the Constitutional Court, disrespecting some fundamental rights and juggling with a referendum on the issue – that is a new form of discrimination against of religious people in this country. That’s the reason why the various Christian churches and the Federation of Jewish communities came up with this statement.” Also supporting the law are prominent artists, including Vaclav Havel’s widow, who see the legislation as a compensation for the way in which religious institutions were treated under the communist authorities. They also call for the bill not to be used politically or ideologically but to be debated in a fair manner. Sources: http://en.rian.ru/world/20121122/177676653.html In German: http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=37726 http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=37703