(Vatican Radio) The Czech government has signed a historic agreement with the Catholic
Church and 15 other religious groups to pay them billions of dollars in compensation
for properties that were seized from them by the Czech Republic's Communist regime.
Friday's deal was signed despite left-wing opposition in what is the European Union's
most atheistic nation.
The Baptists were the only church that refused to sign
the accord, saying they preferred to fund their activities with contributions from
members. Baptists were to receive some 228 million koruna ($11.8 million), said Milan
Kern, who heads the 2,500 member Baptist Union in the Czech Republic.
Those
who signed the agreement – including Catholics, Protestants and Jews – will receive
just over half of their former properties now held by the state – valued at 75 billion
Czech koruna ($3.9 billion).
The Czech Republic also pledged to pay the equivalent
of $3.1 billion in financial compensation over a period of 30 years.
PROPERTIES
DESTROYED
That money is meant for church properties that cannot be returned,
as some were destroyed or given to third parties.
As the largest denomination,
the Catholic Church will receive most of the money and property under the arrangement,
which also includes a provision that the state gradually stops covering priests' salaries
and other church expenses over the next 17 years.
Prime Minister Petr Necas
told reporters he is pleased the deal was signed, more than 20 years after the collapse
of Communism. "This is an act of justice", he said, adding that it will improve relations
between the religious community and the state, following the suffering they endured
"under the Communist regime".
He recalled that in 1948, when the Communists
came to power in what was then Czechoslovakia, Communists seized all properties owned
by churches.
PRIESTS KILLED
The regime also persecuted church leaders.
At least 65 Catholic priests, monks and nuns were executed or killed in prisons, while
others were driven to suicide by the harsh conditions, historians said.
Churches
were allowed to function only under Communist-control and priests' salaries were paid
by the state.
Though the church compensation was agreed by parliament last
year, the leftist Social Democrats oppose it said their party leader Bohuslav Sobotka.
"There is no reason for the deal," he said.
The Social Democrats claim the
churches receive too much compensation in a nation that has Europe's largest number
of atheists -- 30 percent of the population, according to polls -- and asked the Constitutional
Court to intervene.
POPULISM ALLEGATIONS
Joel Ruml, who is president
of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic, disagrees.
He
called the compensation deal a way to establish a "modern relationship between churches
and the state" and that he "is sorry the Social Democrats move towards populism."
A
Constitutional Court secretary reportedly urged the government to postpone signing
the deal, after the last-minute opposition complaint, but the prime minister refused
to wait.
While the Constitutional Court's verdict is still unknown, churches
made clear they hope to write a new chapter in their often difficult history.