Kardinal Vlk questioned today's handover of St. Vitus Cathedral

Prague - Cardinal Miloslav Vlk has questioned the morning transfer of St. Vitus Cathedral back to the state. On his website in the evening, he stated that although the Castle and the Church met today to jointly check and record electricity and water readings, the protocol has not yet been signed. "So nothing has been handed over," he stated, noting that spokesman for the Castle, Petr Hájek, provided false information.
As the Catholic primate further pointed out, there is still no contract for the joint use of the interior of the church, which belongs to the Metropolitan Chapter. When the next meeting will take place is not yet determined, he added.
The transfer of the church after half a year of church administration was confirmed this morning by spokesman for the Office of the President of the Republic, Hájek. In response to Vlk's new statement in the evening, he stated that the archbishop is not a "relevant person" because he is not participating in the handover. According to Hájek, he has received no signals from the fifteen participants of the morning technical transfer that anything was wrong.
Archbishop Vlk explained his role by stating that, according to church law, he is responsible for controlling contracts. Each cathedral is a bishop's church, and the chapter manages it for the bishop, in this case for Vlk.
"At the beginning of the negotiation process regarding the cathedral, a commission was established to negotiate together, and every decision it makes must be approved by the Archbishop of Prague," he stated.
Already at the end of March, according to a press release at the time, the Administration of Prague Castle and the Metropolitan Chapter agreed on a common operational regime in the church. It essentially took effect before Easter with the removal of the admission fee imposed by the Metropolitan Chapter.
Vlk today published what he described as a "true balance": Since the beginning of the handover process, five meetings have taken place. An official record was made of only one, which the chapter also received. In the other cases, smaller or larger press releases were issued, he noted.
According to him, the transfer can only relate to the building itself and the parcels on which it stands. "The properties and movable assets together form an indivisible set identified as the cathedral. And here lies a significant problem. The interior of the cathedral is owned by the Metropolitan Chapter, and therefore it will be necessary to consider the form of a contract and joint use," he emphasized.
According to him, the chapter made a conciliatory gesture in one of the previous meetings and waived the collection of entrance fees. The Castle, which according to Vlk "credited it to its account," then promised to finance the operation of the cathedral. "That was also recorded. However, there has so far been no will to fulfill this promise and there are numerous problems surrounding it," Vlk stated today.
According to him, the Castle submitted a proposal for a contract on April 6 afternoon, but no meeting took place over Easter. The Metropolitan Chapter could not agree to it, so after Easter it proposed a new contract, to which the Castle has yet to respond. "Therefore, nothing has been agreed upon yet," emphasized the cardinal.
The dispute over the ownership of the most visited Czech church, a symbol of Czech statehood and the main sanctuary of the Prague Catholic Archdiocese, expropriated by communists in the 1950s, has been ongoing for nearly 14 years. The Supreme Court recently annulled previous rulings stating that St. Vitus Cathedral belongs to the church. The church has managed it since last September.
The next meeting at the District Court for Prague 1 will take place on May 3.