Czech President Petr Pavel will visit the Vatican on January 19, where he will meet with the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV. The official visit continues the tradition of diplomatic relations between the two states and comes ten years after the last similar trip by the Czech head of state.
Czech President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva will visit the Vatican on January 19. Pope Leo XIV will receive them. and a meeting with the State Secretary of the Vatican, Pietro Parolin, is also planned. On Thursday, Prague Castle reported about it on its website, writes TASR correspondent in Prague.
- President Pavel and his wife will visit the Vatican on January 19.
- They will meet Pope Leo XIV. and Pietro Parolin.
- A similar visit was last held in 2015.
- The Czech Republic still does not have contractually regulated relations with the Holy See.
- The President does not agree with the proposed contract, he considers it unconstitutional.
The last time a similar visit took place was in 2015, when the then president Miloš Zeman was received by Pope Francis. When Leo XIV became the new head of the Catholic Church, Czech President Pavel invited him to visit the Czech Republic in a congratulatory letter. The last pope to visit the Czech Republic was Benedict XVI. in 2009.
The Czech Republic does not have contractually regulated relations with the Holy See
The Czech Republic is one of the few European countries that does not have contractually regulated relations with the Holy See. Another attempt to approve such a contract took place in 2024, when the document was signed in Prague by Secretary Parolin and the then Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Last March, despite reservations, the treaty was approved by the Czech parliamentarians, but the senators subsequently turned to the Constitutional Court due to considerable doubts about its constitutionality. It has not yet reached the president for his signature, and it is not even possible to ratify it until the court’s decision.
According to Pavle, the agreed contract is contrary to the constitutional order. In a statement to the Constitutional Court, he stated that the document as a whole violates the basic constitutional principles of the Czech Republic as a sovereign, secular and republican state and that it introduces the privileged position of the Catholic Church.
