Victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic called on the president and other politicians to stop the adoption of the treaty between the Czech Republic and the Holy See. They fear it would prevent an investigation into sexual abuse in the church. They stated this in an open letter on Wednesday, reports TASR in Prague, according to the Novinky.cz server.
The document regulating relations with the Holy See was signed in October by Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and State Secretary of the Holy See Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Now it must be approved by the parliament and signed by the president. This has not happened yet.
When signing the document, Fiala described it as a bilaterally balanced agreement from which the Czechs will benefit. According to the Czech media, the most sensitive issue during the creation of the documentary was a possible change in the confessional secret. The Czech Republic wanted priests to be obliged to report if they learn about sexual violence during confession. This could not be implemented and the contract declares that the Czech Republic recognizes the secret of confession.
The authors of the challenge claim that already in its current form, confessional secrecy makes it difficult or impossible to investigate sexual abuse, and based on this agreement, it should be extended to all workers in the church. “By signing the contract, you will help the defenders of pedophiles in the Catholic Church to use and abuse confessional and pastoral secrecy as a practical obstacle to the investigation of child sexual abuse in the Church,” they write in the open letter. According to them, the concealment of abuse harms not only the victims, but the whole society.
According to them, the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic does not approach the issue of sexual abuse in a transparent manner. They consider Prague Archbishop Jan Graubner to be one of those who had information about the abuse, but hid it, and demand his resignation.
The Czech Republic is one of the last European countries that does not have regulated relations with the Holy See by agreement. A similar agreement was approved in 2002 by the government of then Prime Minister Miloš Zeman. Parliament did not ratify it, according to him it was disadvantageous and violated the equality of churches.
