Payback to churches to become reality soon

PRAGUE (AP):

Churches were seized, priests jailed or executed, and those who were still allowed to lead religious services did so under the watchful eye of the secret police. More than 22 years after the fall of communism, the Czech government agreed yesterday to pay billions of dollars in compensation for property seized by the former totalitarian regime.

The deal threatened to topple the current coalition government earlier this week after a junior partner voiced anger at the thought of huge sums being paid to churches in the middle of the European debt crisis.

But even in a country where indifference to religion is strong, the compensation plan, to be spread over 30 years, proved to be a win-win situation. The government will no longer have to pay the priests' salaries, and religious groups will finally get some compensation after several previous attempts had failed.

Under the plan, the country's 17 churches, including Roman Catholic and Protestant, would get 56 per cent of their former property now held by the state, estimated at 75 billion koruna (US$3.7 billion). They would also get 59 billion koruna (US$2.9 billion) in financial compensation paid to them over the next 30 years, and the state will gradually stop covering their expenses over the next 17 years.

Yesterday's ruling still needs the approval of Parliament, but the governing three-party coalition has a comfortable majority. In 2008, a similar bill was approved by the government, but Parliament rejected it.