Pacelli sends Gasparri the Church-State provisions of the new Weimar Constitution, also commenting on an anti-Church statement by Hoffmann; quoting Msgr. Hollweck’s critique of the Center Party; and making extenuating explanations about the Center Party’s conduct - Aug. 18, 1919
Source: Timeline
Aug. 18, 1919 Pacelli sends Gasparri the Church-State provisions of the new Weimar Constitution, also commenting on an anti-Church statement by Hoffmann; quoting Msgr. Hollweck’s critique of the Center Party; and making extenuating explanations about the Center Party’s conduct.English translation of Pacelli’s report
Also on Aug. 18th, Pacelli submits to Gasparri a request to give Baron Cramer-Klett the Papal title of Privy Chamberlain to the Pope. Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 5204.
Gasparri asks Pacelli on Sept. 15, 1919 to inform Cramer-Klett that the Pope has conferred the requested title of nobility upon him.
August 18, 1919 Pacelli to Gasparri:
Most Reverend Eminence,
The new Constitution of the German Empire entered into effect the 13th of this month by means of its promulgation in the Official State Bulletin (Reichsgesetzblatt). I therefore believe it my duty to give Your Most Reverend Eminence, here-enclosed with the German text, the Italian translation of the articles that concern relations between Church and State, adding some brief observations or clarifications.
Article 124
German text ...
Italian translation.
All Germans have the right to form associations and societies for purposes that do not violate the criminal laws. This right cannot be limited by preventative measures. The same prescriptions apply to religious associations and societies.
Every association is free to acquire lawful status in accordance with the provisions of the civil law. This status cannot be denied to an association on grounds that it pursues a political, social-political or religious purpose.
This article is rather important for the Religious Congregations, since it extends to them without limitations the right, to which all Germans are entitled, to found associations. Also, the many restrictions about the acquiring of legal status on the part of the Congregations themselves, in force up to now in all the States of Germany, have been abrogated by the second section of this article; they acquire such status in conformity with all the general provisions of the civil law.
Moreover, in article 138, the aforesaid Congregations are on an equal footing with religious societies as to what concerns the guarantee of their property.
Third section.
Religion and religious societies.
Article 135
German text ...
Italian translation. All residents of the German Reich enjoy full freedom of belief and conscience. The undisturbed exercise of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution and stands under the protection of the State. The general laws of the State remain thereby unaffected.
Article 136
German text ...
Italian translation:
Civil and political rights and duties are neither conditioned nor restricted by the exercise of freedom of religion. The enjoyment of civil and political rights, as well as the eligibility for public offices is independent of religious confession. No one is obligated to disclose his religious convictions. The authorities have the right to inquire into the question of membership in a religious society only to the extent that rights or duties depend upon it or a lawfully ordered statistical census requires it. No one may be compelled to participate in any church activity or ceremony, or religious exercises, or the use of a religious form of oath.
Articles 135 and 136 concern the personal sphere of law and sanction individual freedom of belief and conscience. Civil and political rights and duties are independent of religious confession; in a particular way, then, it is established that all, without distinction of religion, can be equally eligible for political offices. No one is obligated to disclose their own religious convictions; however, the Civil Authorities can inquire into membership in a religious society “when rights and duties depend upon it.” This clause finds its application in what concerns education of children (classes, schools), church taxes, etc. Such inquiry is also allowed, as is clear, when it concerns statistical surveys ordered by law. Finally, it is noteworthy that the right as to participation in religious activities does not exclude the exercise of authority, with respect to children, by those who responsible for their education, nor would it prevent church disciplinary procedures toward those who freely belong to a religious confession. As to the religious form of oath, no one can be compelled; nevertheless it is permitted under the norms of articles 42 and 177.
Article 137
German text: ...
Italian translation:
There exists no State Church.
Freedom of association in religious societies is guaranteed. Formation of religious societies within the territory of the Republic is not subject to any restrictions.
Each religious society will order and administer its affairs independently within the ambit of generally applicable law. It confers its offices without cooperation of the State or civil authorities.
Religious societies are entitled to gain legal capacity according to the general provisions of civil law.
The religious societies remain entities under public law to the extent they were such previously. For other religious societies, they are to be granted the same rights upon application, if they ...
Article 138
German text ...
Italian translation:
The subsidies from the State to religious societies provided by law, agreement or particular title of right shall be cleared by State legislation. The basis for this shall be established by the Reich.
The property and other rights of religious societies and associations for their establishments, foundations, and other assets dedicated to worship, education and charity are guaranteed.
Article 138 deals with the property of religious societies. The first section establishes that the subsidies from the State to these societies, due according to laws, agreements, or particular titles of right, must be cleared, being substituted with payments of a capital sum or an annual amount, on a basis that will be fixed by laws of the Reich. Among the above-named agreements must be counted above all that concluded with the Holy See. Not included, however, in the article under consideration are the free or discretionary subsidies from the State in favor of the Church, which, at least in Bavaria, were up to now rather sizeable. In the transitional provisions (art. 173) it is established, then, that until the above-mentioned Reich law is issued, the aforesaid obligatory subsidies must be maintained as they were in the past.
By virtue of the second section, the property of religious societies remains assured, as also their other rights, for example the right to use buildings placed at their disposition by the State.
The aforementioned Commission for the Examination of the Proposed Constitution of the Reich also discussed the question of patronato (private); but, in view of the many difficulties this matter presented, it was decided not to handle it in the Reich Constitution, leaving it instead to legislation of the individual States.
Article 139
German text ...
Italian translation:
Sundays and other holidays recognized by the State remain under the governance of the law about days of repose and spiritual elevation.
Article 140
German text ...
Italian translation:
For members of the Army, free time necessary for the fulfillment of their religious obligations is to be protected.
Article 141
German text ...
Italian translation:
To the extent of the needs for worship and pastoral care in the army, in hospitals, prisons, or other public establishments, religious associations are allowed to conduct religious services, whereby any compulsion is to be excluded.
Articles 140 and 141 concern the exercise of religious practices and of spiritual assistance in the army, in hospitals, in prisons and other public establishments. As to what concerns the army, the proposal was not accepted to sanction expressly in the Constitution pastoral care in the military, as it was previously; it is nevertheless to be hoped that it will not bring the result that this institution will be harmed.
The Constitution assures all members of the military the freedom to fulfill their religious obligations; on the other hand, religious societies must be allowed, to the extent there is need, and with the exclusion of any form of coercion, to exercise acts of worship and pastoral care in the army as in other aforementioned public institutions.
Transitional provisions.
Article 173
German text ...
Italian translation.
Until a Reich law according to Article 138 is promulgated, the former State subsidies to religious societies according to law, agreements, or particular titles of right will continue.
As a complement to this respectful Report, may I be permitted to add two judgments concerning the new Reich Constitution.
In the session of the Commission for the examination of the new Bavarian Constitution held this July 23rd in Bamberg, Minister President Hoffmann said this: “Undoubtedly the great tendency of the revolution was to render the Church free from the State and the State free from the Church; but this was not entirely actuated in the Reich Constitution. It made the Church free from the State, but not so much vice versa, the State free from the Church. The full separation of State and Church awaits another time.”
Monsignor Hollweck, in the last part of his letter of the 7th of this month, transmitted by me to Your Eminence with my obsequious Report No. 13699 dated the 13th of this month, writes as follows: “Also to me is made known that (in the new Constitutions of the Reich, of Baden, of Württemberg, etc.) is recognized the complete freedom of conscience and of belief. Certainly the individual in these is declared free in religious matters, but only because invidividuals can, without any impediment, turn their backs on religion, and also on all religions.
“These provisions do not signify an intention to eliminate whatever forms of violence in fact of religion, but are rather an invitation to the individual to free oneself from any religion. The same thought was already supported by the revolutionaries of 1848, who introduced it in the fundamental rights of the German people, and its consequences can be seen in the practice of liberalism. The Church and Catholics cannot expect any salvation from it.
“The State Church has not existed for a long time already. It therefore does not constitute any danger, and the elimination of this danger for the future therefore does not represent any advantage that is worth the cost of sacrificing anything. On the contrary, the principle of the subordination of the Church to the laws of the State – ‘within the ambit of common rights’ – accepted also by Catholics and by their leaders and representatives, is a grave error and such a great danger, compared to the disappearance of all the other so-called advantages, such as the right of collecting taxes, the maintenance of the theological faculties in the Universities, the recognition of the Church as a society of public right, the free appointment of benefices, etc. All this can be and will be made to change in the future, and the Bishops of Germany, the representatives of the German Catholics will find themselves disarmed in the face of such events. They have consented without protest to the maximum degree of submission of the Church to the State. Please God that the Holy See save ecclesiastical first things! German Catholics have saved the position of the Protestant ‘Church,’ it being the so-called Christendom, if it is these and their positions as well-paid professors of theology, but have left the Church in the lurch. It must save itself. Catholics have all put up with this and are now therefore lauded by the jurists and by Protestant theologians as ‘forward-looking’ and as ‘lovers of peace.’ But I am becoming bitter. The experiences of these recent times have made me that way, because of so little coming from those in whom I had placed my hope: the Bishops and the theologians. They were called first of all to support the cause of the Church with all their strength; but all kept quiet and sought for the world to believe that the ‘Center Party’ has again saved everything.”
Thus Monsignor Hollweck. While recognizing the deficiencies and the weakness of the Center Party in Germany and while deploring the theoretical and practical defects of the new Constitution, especially in what concerns the school question, it nevertheless needs to be not denied that this party does not have a majority in the National Assembly, and thus could not obtain everything. It at least for now has prevented, by its energies, a new Kulturkampf from happening in Germany, and a hostile separation between the two Powers, such as there is in other Nations in Europe, and has warded off the threatening danger that extreme laws might emanate against the Church, for which there have also been guarantees of its properties and affirmation of freedom in the appointments to its offices.
After which, humbly bowing ...
Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Dokt 1033