Czech govt to compensate religious groups

[LiveCatholic]

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I could hardly keep my glee in Czech while reading this article.

Churches were seized, outspoken priests jailed or even executed and those allowed to lead services did so under the watchful eye of the secret police. More than 22 years after the fall of Communism, the Czech government agreed Wednesday to pay billions of dollars in compensation for property seized by the former totalitarian regime in a bid to draw another line under the country’s troubled past.

…

Under the plan, the country’s 17 churches, including Catholic and Protestant, would get 56 percent of their former property now held by the state — estimated at 75 billion koruna ($3.7 billion) — and 59 billion koruna ($2.9 billion) in financial compensation paid to them over the next 30 years. The state will also gradually stop covering their expenses over the next 17.

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The party’s opposition reflected the overall atmosphere in the country, considered one of the most atheist in Europe.

According to a December 2011 public poll, 69 percent of Czechs were against the religious restitution and only 40 percent considered churches to be useful.

They’ve never been quite right since Jan Hus.

 

[Tenofovir]

LINK.

Many Czechs drank the Communist kool-aid.