From the Church Law Society
Congratulations to Members of the Church Law Society
Mgr. Hana Molíková and Josef Klíma married on 27
June 2009 in a wedding ceremony in the Roman Catholic chapel of
the Holy Trinity in the Vranov nad Dyjí Chateau.
As
of 1 July 2009,
ICLic. Michal Podzimek,
Th.D., a priest of the Litoměřice Diocese, was
appointed the chaplain for university students, intellectuals and cultural-educational
activities in the city of Liberec (in the Roman
Catholic parishes in the city territory). We noted this information from the
official publication Acta curiæ
Episcopalis Litomericensis
No. 06/2009, point 11 b.
As of 1 July 2009, the recently ordained Roman
Catholic priest Mag. theol. Stanislav Brožka was appointed the parish vicar in Tábor and excurrendo the
administrator of the parishes in Miličín a Neustupov in the České Budějovice Diocese.
Obituaries
Last year we lost
JUDr. Václav Šolle, CSc., a
legal historian who was one of the great supporters of the Church Law Society,
particularly at its beginnings in 1995 when he became a member. Thanks to his
activities we were able to also enjoy the participation of his brother, PhDr. Miloš Šolle,
a famous archeologist, at many of our early events.
Doc. ThDr. Vladimír Poláček, a member of our Society and a famous canon law
expert, died on 2 May 2009. He was born in Pilsen in 1925. Since the beginning of his theology studies
he concentrated on the canon law of eastern Catholic churches, particularly of
the Greek Catholic Church. In 1950-1968 the Czechoslovak state practically
eliminated any activities of the Greek Catholic Church in the country. Thanks
to the change in the political climate during the “Prague Spring“ of 1968, and particularly thanks to governmental
regulation No. 70/1968 Coll., the Greek Catholic Church was permitted to be
active in Czechoslovakia once again. In
1969 Vladimír Poláček was
ordained a Greek Catholic priest in Prešov but did
not obtain state approval to be active in the Church.
In
1990–1995 Mons. Vladimír Poláček served as the Dean of the Greek Catholic
Theological School of Pavel Jozef
Šafárik University in Prešov
and the head of the Church Law Department at the School. Following the
dissolution of Czechoslovakia he moved to the Czech Republic in 1995; he worked
in the parish of Domaslavice at Frýdek-Místek and was appointed a judge of the Interdiocesal Court in Olomouc. He taught moral
theology at the Sts Cyril and Methodius School of Theology of Palacký University in Olomouc.
Requiescant in pace!
jrt
Brief News
Conference Religion and Public Power in EU Countries,
Olomouc 2009
The above mentioned
international conference took part in the building of Archbishopric Museum in Olomouc, Northern Moravia, on 11 – 12 June
2009. It was organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and lead by the
Deputy Minister Ing. Jaromír Talíř
and Head of Church Departement Ing.
Pavla Bendová. About 30
experts from most of EU member states participated in the conference. The
topics were the comparison of church financing systems and settlement of
property injustices caused to churches during the communist totalitarian era.
Sessions were chaired by JUDr. PhDr. Petr
Kolář, Ph.D., and Mgr.
Jakub Kříž. Prof. JUDr. Jiří Rajmund Tretera delivered the introductory lecture Financing of Churches in the EU countries.
Establishment of the Metropolitan Church Court in Prague
Based on a decree
by the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature and an
agreement among the bishops of the Bohemian Church province, the
Roman Catholic archbishop of Prague issued decree No.
4722/2009 establishing as of 1 July 2009 the Metropolitan
Church Court of the Prague Archdiocese. As of that date the Interdiocesal
Court of the Czech Church Province, which was created
by a decree dated 30 May 1982 by the Prague archbishop and the
ordinaries of the Litoměřice, Hradec Králové and České Budějovice dioceses, ceased to exist. As of 1 July 2011 the Metropolitan
Court in Prague will become the
appellate court for the diocesan courts in Hradec Králové
and Pilsen, both established as of 1 July 2009. Until then the appellate
court for both courts is the Interdiocesal Court of
the Moravian Church Province in Olomouc.
The decree of the
Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature stipulates that the appellate court
for the Metropolitan Church Court of the Prague Archdiocese is the Interdiocesal Court of the Moravian Church Province in Olomouc. This relationship
is a mutual one; the Metropolitan Court in Prague is the appellate
court for first instance decisions by the Interdiocesal Court in Olomouc.
With the consent of
the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature and upon request by the
ordinaries of the Litoměřice and České
Budějovice dioceses and the Apostolic Exarch of the Greek Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, the Metropolitan
Court in Prague will handle matters
that will eventually be dealt with by courts of dioceses once those courts are
established.
P.
prof. JUDr. Ignác
Antonín Hrdina, DrSc., O.Praem. was appointed the Metropolitan
Church Court vicar of the Prague
Archdiocese; ThDr. Jiří
Svoboda, JC.D. was appointed the deputy vicar of the
Court.
Establishment of Church Courts in the Hradec Králové and Pilsen Dioceses
The Church Court of
the Hradec Králové Diocese was established as of 1 July 2009 by decree No. 1525/2009 of
the Roman Catholic Hradec Králové Diocese bishop. Mons. Josef Růt, a Papal prelate, was appointed the Court vicar; ICLic. Václav Hegr
was appointed the deputy vicar of the Court.
The Church Court of
the Pilsen Diocese was established as of 1 July 2009 by decree 919/2009 of the
Roman Catholic Pilsen Diocese bishop. Mons. ICLic. Vladimír Gajdušek was appointed the Court’s vicar.
The 15th Annual Conference “The Church and
the State”, Brno 2009
Masaryk University in Brno, Faculty of Law, Departement of Constitutional Law and Politology,
organized the above mentioned conference, which reminded sad 60th
Anniversary of the communist Acts on Churches (1949). JUDr. Kateřina Šimáčková, Ph.D., Mgr. Petr Jäger, JUDr. Pavel Molek and Mgr. Ladislav Vyhnánek from the Masaryk University and the Constitutional
Court or Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic in Brno organized the
conference. 13 speakers from all the Republic,
delivered their lectures.
Symposium “Peter’s Office − On the Service of
the Roman Bishop” in Hradec Králové
The diocesan
theological institute in Hradec Králové announced
that it will organize a one-day symposium on the above topic on 19 September 2009 in New Adalbertinum;
it is intended for priests, deacons, parish assistants and interested members
of the public. The lecturers include ThLic. Prokop Brož, Th.D., Mgr. Pavel Kavalír, ThLic. Karel Sládek,
Th.D., prof. PhDr. František X. Halas, CSc., and PhDr. Tomáš Petráček,
Ph.D., Th.D.
jrt