Prague, March 16 (CTK) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka is surprised at churches filing lawsuits in search of property owned by towns and regions, he said yesterday, adding that he wants the government to discuss the issue, also in order to estimate possible impacts of the lawsuits.
Under the law on the settlement of property affairs between the state and churches, valid since 2013 and known as the church restitution law, 16 churches are to be returned the property confiscated from them during the communist regime, and get a financial compensation for the property that cannot be returned because it is no longer owned by the state but by other owners, such as towns and regions.
The largest share of the returned property and financial compensation goes to the Roman Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church says it sticks to its previous vow not to seek the return of property belonging to towns and regions, unless they gained the property unlawfully when they disrespected the post-communist freezing of the former church property on which a decision was only to be made.
In some cases, however, the legal blockage was breached and the property became subject to speculations. In such cases, the church will claim its right to it, the Czech Bishops’ Conference (CBK) has written.
It said, nevertheless, that the church bodies claiming the particular properties in question will take into consideration whether they have been compensated for the properties according to the restitution law.
One of the widely discussed cases is the lawsuit a Piarist school order community has filed against the state and the South Moravia Region. It claims the return of the Piarist school building in Mikulov, which has been managed by the region since 2000.
The Piarist order says the state had no right to transfer the building to the region in the past.
The region plans to defend its right to the property.
Sobotka said at a joint press conference with South Moravia Governor Michal Hasek (both Social Democrats, CSSD) yesterday that he understands the position of South Moravia and the other regions concerned.
He said when the church restitution bill was discussed in parliament in 2012, it was clearly said that it is the state that is obliged to return property to churches, not regions or towns.
The cases of the property owned by regions and towns should be settled by means of the financial compensation within the restitution law, Sobotka said.
“I think it is quite surprising that the properties that are not state-owned are being claimed at court,” Sobotka said.
Based on the church restitution law, churches will be returned their former property worth 75 billion crowns, and given a financial compensation worth 59 billion crowns plus inflation during 30 years. Most of the sum, 47.2 billion crowns, is to go to the Roman Catholic Church.
At the same time, the state subsidies to churches, which stood at 1.5 billion crowns a year, will gradually decrease to zero in 17 years.
($1=24.347 crowns)
