Concordat with Vatican halted in Czech Republic over seal of confession

The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic on April 1 found that parts of a treaty between the Czech Republic and the Holy See are inconsistent with the Czech constitution and therefore cannot be ratified.

“We disagree with the decision of the majority of judges at the Constitutional Court but accept it,” the Czech Bishops’ Conference wrote in a press release. The episcopate finds it “positive that the court did not reject the idea of the existence of a treaty with the Holy See but only limited itself to partial passages.”

The agreement on certain legal issues was signed in 2024 by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and then-Prime Minister Petr Fiala. It was later approved by both chambers of the countryʼs Parliament and was submitted to the president of the country for ratification.

However, a group of senators filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, which on April 1 stated that two parts of the accord are problematic.

The ruling says that the concordat would “give Catholic Church legal entities a powerful tool to prevent their documents (archive materials) from being made available.” Church archives are important sources of cultural wealth and history, but the accord would “exempt Catholic churches from the obligation to respect the Archives Act, which would, however, continue to apply to all other churches,” the court explained.

The second objection deals with the seal of confession, which would be enacted without any exceptions and would be “a clear violation of the neutrality of the state and the principle of equal treatment of different churches.”

Each side of the treaty understood it differently, the ruling observed, adding that the seal of confession would be more protected than professional secrecy.

Dissenting opinions

Three out of 15 judges of the Constitutional Court presented a different position, arguing the court did not deal with an important part of the legal file presented by senators, such as objections to “the alleged privilege of the Catholic Church in the provision of pastoral care in various types of institutions and facilities.”

However, they admitted that “the Holy See is a subject of international law, which the Czech Republic has recognized,” and so it is “undoubtedly an objective reason for the different treatment of the Catholic Church in various issues.” They further argued that the two problematic passages in the majority decision are not in conflict with the constitution.

Another two judges presented a different position each. One of them, Judge Tomáš Langášek, argued that “the dissenting opinions show that it was possible to adopt a rational interpretation of the concordat in good faith that would not in any way conflict with the constitutional order.”

He said he considers the decision “a paradigmatic change in the role and function of the constitutional judiciary.” The Constitutional Court opposed the intention of the Parliament “to take on an international legal obligation to maintain” the already existing and “legally guaranteed standard of protection of fundamental religious rights and freedoms in [the] future,” Langášek opined.

“The courtʼs concern for equal treatment among churches and religious communities is only a proxy problem,” the constitutional judge added.

‘A legal defeat for people who consider religious freedom an important value’

“It is a political victory for some, and a legal defeat for people, believers and nonbelievers, who consider religious freedom an important value,” commented Jakub Kříž, a lawyer who teaches at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague.

At the same time, he said he believes “the absence of a concordat is not a tragedy” either for religious freedom or “for Catholics who, after all, always benefit the most when the state does not get along with them.”

The proposal “would have had no chance of success if” Czech President Petr Pavel “had not intervened and introduced new arguments,” for example suggesting that “the agreement contradicts the sovereignty of the state and its secular and republican character,” the scholar underscored.

The negotiated agreement was “poor in content, innocent, almost devoid of substance,” and the Czech side did not try to “negotiate anything beyond what is already in force today,” Kříž said, adding that it had “more a symbolic” value.

‘A big disappointment’

The decision was a “big disappointment” and “a very unfortunate event,” lamented Father Jiří Rajmund Tretera, a Dominican and professor of canon law at the Faculty of Law of Charles University.

On the seal of confession, there would be “no change to the current situation,” as all believers “were guaranteed that the current legal provisions” regarding “confessional secrecy could not be so easily eliminated” if a religion-averse group “came to power in our democratic state,” the priest said.

Tretera also said he believes the Constitutional Court committed “an unintentional attack against the ecumenical movement.” It argued that the proposed agreement “was not in accordance with the principle of equality of all churches,” yet “this is in conflict with the reality commonly recognized in non-Catholic churches.”

Kříž clarified that “non-Catholic churches did not” oppose the treaty, and “many even welcomed it, seeing its role as a stabilizer of guarantees of religious freedom.”

The only way to proceed is “to start negotiations from the beginning,” as this is not “a bill where a sentence can be deleted,” the lawyer warned.

Yet he said he is skeptical that the Holy See would risk another “embarrassment,” as “the Czech Republic showed to be a rather unreliable international partner.”

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/europe/concordat-with-vatican-halted-in-czech-republic-over-seal-of-confession