Reich Concordat: Non-denominational people demand end to outdated treaties

To this day, the Catholic Church in Germany refers to contractual agreements that were negotiated with a National Socialist government. The Humanist Association of Germany points this out on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the signing of the State-Church Treaty, which regulated relations between the German Reich under Adolf Hitler and the Church. On July 20, 1933, Franz von Papen, Vice-Chancellor of the cabinet under Adolf Hitler, and Eugenio Pacelli, Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican and later Pope Pius XII, signed the treaty in Rome, in which, among other things, special legal protection for memorial days and holidays of church members, the collection of membership fees with state aid and the financing of military chaplaincy were guaranteed. In view of the anniversary, the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, renewed his demand to the political parties in Berlin on Thursday to take on the task of replacing the outdated state church law and abolishing outdated regulations. “The Reich Concordat is not just about agreements that stem from the agreements between the German Nazi regime and a religious community whose head is also an absolute monarch,” said Wolf. The regulations privileged the church over non-denominational people. They contain concessions created at the time of German National Socialism, which undermine the provisions of the Basic Law on disentangling the relationship between state and church, such as the almost 100-year-old demand for a redemption of historical state benefits, which was taken over from the Weimar Constitution. Wolf also pointed out that the ideological and religious pluralism of today did not exist at the time the Concordat was signed. “In the meantime, non-denominational people in the Federal Republic of Germany form the largest social group in relation to the individual denominational communities. The system created by such concordats cannot do justice to their interests.” Frieder Otto Wolf emphasized that a contemporary constitutional law relating to religion and ideology that is comprehensible to all people is overdue in order to take account of social changes. For the ideologically neutral constitutional state, obsolete law could also represent a burden if it makes it difficult to adapt to new social conditions. The replacement of treaties concluded with the Hitler dictatorship was therefore an important step. A fundamental renewal is necessary here and should no longer be postponed by politicians. Wolf: “From the perspective of the growing group of non-denominational people, there is an urgent need for action. And modern and democratically-minded Catholics should ultimately also be able to see a benefit in the Church only referring to regulations that have arisen within the framework and under the conditions of a free and democratic constitutional state.”