Czech court halts ratification of Vatican treaty over seal of confession
St. Nicholas Church in Prague. Photo: iStock
On April 1, 2026, the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic ruled that certain provisions of the treaty between the state and the Holy See contradict national law. EWTN News reports that the judges’ decision blocked the ratification of the concordat, which had been under preparation for decades.
The court found two aspects of the agreement problematic. The first objection concerned the secrecy of confession, which the treaty proposed to affirm without any exceptions. The judges held that such a provision would be “a clear violation of the neutrality of the state and the principle of equal treatment of different churches.”
The second objection concerned church archives: the document granted Catholic structures the right to withhold documents from the public, exempting them from the general law on archives.
The Czech Bishops’ Conference expressed disagreement with the verdict. Lawyers and legal experts described the ruling as a legal defeat for those who regard religious freedom as an important value in one of Europe’s most secular countries.
Professor of canon law Jiří Rajmund Tretera stressed that the ruling was, in effect, an attack on interfaith peace, since the country’s non-Catholic communities had supported the treaty as a stabilizer of believers’ common rights.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that the UOC-KP had appointed a “bishop” for Czechia.
Read also
Metropolitan Onuphry leads Liturgy at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra's skete
The Primate of the UOC performed a diaconal ordination and prayed for peace in Ukraine on the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repressions.
Ministry of Culture shows Soviet space museum in Orthodox church of Pereyaslav
On the territory of the Pereyaslav Reserve, there is a Soviet space museum based at St. Paraskeva's Church.
Prayer processions on Family Purity Day held in Georgia
In ten cities across the country, believers participated in prayer processions under the leadership of the newly-elected Catholicos-Patriarch Shio III.
Metropolitan Serhiy of Ternopil concelebrates with Patriarch Shio in Georgia
A hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church concelebrated with Patriarch Shio at the Liturgy on Day of Family Purity at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Georgian Church.
Dumenko congratulates Patriarch Shio and assures him of his prayers
In a message to the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, the head of the OCU Dumenko asked for prayers for Ukraine.
Filaret: In 2008, I secretly agreed with Bartholomew on recognizing UOC-KP
In a 2017 interview published only now, the UOC-KP head admitted he personally held secret talks at the Phanar, even though Constantinople officially regarded him as anathematized – and the Phanar was offering not autocephaly but the "acquisition" of the UOC-KP.