The Czech Bishops’ Conference is negotiating with the government of Prague to obtain compensation of three billion Euros to be paid in instalments over a period of some 60-70 years. The claimed compensation was reported on 25 October by the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Jan Graubner, in an interview with the Czech Catholic magazine “Katolicky tydenik”. The sum represents the compensation for the Communist government’s expropriation of land and buildings owned by the Czech Church from February 1948 on. These properties were then reconverted to other purposes, still remain nationalized and as such are non-returnable. Graubner reported on the progress of the negotiations on relations between Church and State. A solution to the problem was prospected during a meeting held on 24 October between Archbishop Graubner, Pavel Cerny, chairman of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, Vaclav Jehlicka, Minister of Culture, and Minister of State Jaromir Talir. Jehlicka delivered to Graubner a bill drafted by Jehlicka himself and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg among others. It regulates the terms and procedures of the planned compensation; the Minister in turn was given a similar document drafted by the ecclesiastical Commission.
