Pacelli to Gasparri: Relations between Church and State in Bavaria – The new Bavarian Constitution - Oct. 6, 1919
Source: Timeline
Oct. 6, 1919 Pacelli sends Gasparri the Church-State provisions of the new Bavarian State Constitution, also reporting, in the midst of a Bavarian Government crisis, that he has arranged for Catholic Landtag deputies to pressure Hoffmann without Pacelli or the Vatican becoming known as the source of the initiative.
English translation of report
Oct. 6, 1919 Pacelli to Gasparri:
Re: Relations between Church and State in Bavaria. – The new Bavarian Constitution
Most Reverend Eminence,
By date of this September 29th, Mr. Hoffmann, Minister President and Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Education and Cultural Affairs, sent me a letter, which I carry out my duty to report herewith, translated from the German:
“I have the honor to communicate to Your Excellency that the new Constitution of the Bavarian Republic (Freistaat) has been published and has entered into effect. I hereby enclose for you a copy of the Official Gazette, containing the text of this Constitution.
“With the revolution commenced for Germany and Bavaria a new period of their history. The Bavarian Republic, with the entrance into effect of the new Constitution, rests upon a solid legal foundation recognized by all the population.
“I hope that the relations between the Holy See and the new Bavaria will be good, and I have already provided that the Minister of Bavaria, Baron Otto von Ritter zu Grünstein, returned to Rome immediately after the conclusion of the peace.
“I take this occasion with pleasure etc.”
The same day that I received this letter, that being this September 30th, I responded to Mr. Minister in the following terms:
“I have the honor to acknowledge to Your Excellency the receipt of Your esteemed letter dated the 29th of this month and to thank You at the same time for the exemplar of the new Bavarian Constitution courteously sent to me, which I will examine with interest and attention.
“I cultivate the most sincere and warm votives for Bavaria’s felicitous future and join myself from the heart to the hope expressed by Your Excellency that the relations between the Holy See and the Bavarian Government will be good, assuring You that for my part, I will see to contributing with all my strength to this intention.
“With sentiments etc.”
Meanwhile a crisis has arisen in the Bavarian Government that is still not resolved, about which I will have the honor to recount to Your Most Reverend Eminence in a special Report, and which has brought in consequence a further delay in the proposed negotiations on the Concordat. Despite this, and in expectation that the negotiations will begin, I have actively sought to influence Mr. Hoffmann by means of deputies of the Bavarian Volkspartei, or Bavarian Center Party, rousing them to exert pressure on him (as coming from them and without naming or compromising in any way either myself or the Holy See), to get him to recognize in Bavaria as well the full and absolute freedom in the appointment to ecclesiastical offices, established in the Constitution of the German Empire (cf. Report No. 13822 dated this August 18th) and to allow at the same time the continuation not only of the obligatory subsidies, but also of those that are so-called free or voluntary, which have up to now been remitted by the Bavarian State to the Church. In this regard I must also add that some of the aforesaid deputies have confidentially expressed to me their fear that Mr. Baron von Ritter, being an excellent personage and motivated by the best sentiments, attempted, once he reached Rome, to obtain from the Holy See a promise or hope of some sort of participation by the State in the appointment to ecclesiastical offices (for example, in a form subject to confidential agreement), all the more since, as it is said, in his Reports to the Bavarian Government he had supported the possibility and the convenience in principle of maintaining the aforementioned voluntary subsidies. If he should achieve this, these deputies think it would become naturally almost impossible to bend the obstinate and anti-clerical Mr. Hoffmann to the aforesaid recognition.
At the same time, in sending the enclosed aforesaid exemplar of the Bavarian Constitution to Your Eminence, I deem it not unuseful (1) to transcribe here-enclosed, translated into Italian, the paragraphs of this Constitution concerning relations between Church and State, adding for each some observations and clarifications; (2) to indicate that in some points the Concordat of 1817 is violated, both by this Constitution and by the Constitution of the Empire or by other provisions of legislation.
I. The new Bavarian Constitution deals with the religious question and relations between Church and State in Heading IV entitled “Freedom of conscience, religious societies, schools.” It comprises only five paragraphs (17-21) and contains rather few legislative provisions. The reason is because Bavaria is already bound in the governance of this important matter by the Reich Constitution, as was stated with words of evident regret by Minister President Hoffmann, who in his anti-clerical spirit lamented that this had made the Church free from the State, but not vice versa the State free from the Church (cf. Proceedings of the II. Constitutional Committee on the Outline of a Constitutional Decree for the Free State of Bavaria – Bavarian Landtag – Session 1919 – First Reading – Appendix 324 – page 270)...
Section 17
I. To each is guaranteed full freedom of belief and conscience ... [summary continues for sections 17-21, plus implementing legislation, as well as excerpts from the Bavaria-Vatican Concordat of 1817] ...
Footnote: This news may be confirmed by a recent letter from the Bishop of Eichstätt, in which he tells me of having learned from a good employee in the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs that “the Minister of Bavaria to the Holy See believes that Rome would be ready for or at least not against an eventual negotiation with the Bavarian Government to recognize an involvement of the State in ecclesiastical appointments in exchange for maintenance of all or at least the most important of the subsidies previously paid by the State.
Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Dokt 265