Czech Catholics Appeal For Religious Liberty
Received Sunday 8.20 p.m. PRAGUE, Nov. 5. Czechoslovakia 's Catholie bishops today issued the text of a petition they addressed to the Government calling for a revision of the new ehurch laws. The petition condemned the laws for ' ' unconstitutitionally ' ' taking away freedom to mauage ehurch affairs. It was signed by the Archbishop of Olomouc, Dr. Josef Matoeha, and others of the Hierarchy but not by the Archbishop of Prague, Dr. Josef Beran, nor his auxiliaries. The bishops said the old s/stem 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 reispeet the church 's autonomy in the cnnduct and direetion of religious matters and the new State office for church affairs was given the right "to unlimited interferenee. " The petition said: "The Roman Catholie Church in thi9 country has de faeto been placed outside any legal standing. The State claims the right to fill vacaneies in spiritual otfices and to refuse consent to nominations of clerymen for veasons of political ideologv. This *onfliets with the basic clause of the stitution on freedom of worship. The law- does not respect the autonomy , of the Church in the direetion and control of matters of belief, morals, divine service, church discipline, religious instruction and menibership of the ehurch, so that freedom of worship is not guar unteed, and the performance of religion \s exposed to the danger of being frustrated by political factOrs. 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 viewpoiuts. The Government should assure tlie Catholie Church a firm legal standing and independence of activity in church internal affairs by issuing a collectivi religious law."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHRONL19491107.2.22
Bibliographic details
Chronicle (Levin), 7 November 1949, Page 5
Word Count
314Czech Catholics Appeal For Religious Liberty Chronicle (Levin), 7 November 1949, Page 5
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