The Vatican Exposed: Money, Murder, and the Mafia (35 page)

Article 4. In its relations and correspondence with the bishops,
clergy, and other members of the Catholic Church in Germany, the
Holy See enjoys full freedom. The same applies to the bishops and
other diocesan officials in their dealings with the faithful in all matters belonging to their pastoral office.

Instructions, ordinances, Pastoral Letters, official diocesan
gazettes, and other enactments regarding the spiritual direction of the
faithful issued by the ecclesiastical authorities within the framework of
their competence (Art. 1, Sect. 2) may be published without hindrance
and brought to the notice of the faithful in the form hitherto usual.

Article 5. In the exercise of their spiritual activities the clergy
enjoy the protection of the State in the same way as State officials.
The State will take proceedings in accordance with the general provisions of State law against any outrage offered to the clergy personally
or directed against their ecclesiastical character, or any interference
with the duties of their office, and in case of need will provide official protection.

Article 6. Clerics and Religious are freed from any obligation to
undertake official offices and such obligations as, according to the
provisions of Canon Law, are incompatible with the clerical or religious state. This applies particularly to the office of magistrate,
juryman, member of Taxation Committee, or member of the Fiscal
Tribunal.

Article 7. The acceptance of an appointment or office in the State,
or in any publicly constituted corporation dependent on the State,
requires, in the case of the clergy, the nihil obstat of the Diocesan
Ordinary of the individual concerned, as well as that of the Ordinary
of the place in which the publicly constituted corporation is situated.
The nihil obstat may be withdrawn at any time for grave reasons
affecting ecclesiastical interests.

Article 8. The official income of the clergy is immune from distraint to the same extent as is the official salary of officials of the
Reich and State.

Article 9. The clergy may not be required by judicial and other
officials to give information concerning matters which have been
entrusted to them while exercising the care of souls, and which therefore come within the obligation of pastoral secrecy.

Article 10. The wearing of clerical dress or of a religious habit on
the part of lay folk, or of clerics or religious who have been forbidden
to wear them by a final and valid injunction made by the competent
ecclesiastical authority and officially communicated to the State
authority, is liable to the same penalty on the part of the State as the
misuse of military uniform.

Article 11. The present organization and demarcation of dioceses of the Catholic Church in the German Reich remains in force.
Such rearrangements of a bishopric or of an ecclesiastical province or of other diocesan demarcations as shall seem advisable in the future,
so far as they involve changes within the boundaries of a German
State, remain subject to the agreement of the Government of the
State concerned.

Rearrangements and alterations which extend beyond the boundaries of a German State require the agreement of the Reich Government, to whom it shall be left to secure the consent of the regional
Government in question. The same applies to rearrangements or
alterations of ecclesiastical Provinces involving several German States.
The foregoing conditions do not apply to such ecclesiastical boundaries as are laid down merely in the interests of local pastoral care.

In the case of any territorial reorganization within the German
Reich, the Reich Government will communicate with the Holy See
with a view to rearrangement of the organization and demarcation of
dioceses.

Article 12. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 11,
ecclesiastical offices may be freely constituted and changed, unless the
expenditure of State funds is involved. The creation and alteration of
parishes shall be carried out according to principles with which the
diocesan bishops are agreed, and for which the Reich Government
will endeavor to secure uniform treatment as far as possible from the
State Governments.

Article 13. Catholic parishes, parish and diocesan societies, episcopal sees, bishoprics and chapters, religious Orders and Congregations, as well as institutions, foundations, and property which are
under the administration of ecclesiastical authority, shall retain or
acquire respectively legal competence in the civil domain according
to the general prescriptions of civil law. They shall remain publicly
recognized corporations insofar as they have been such hitherto; similar rights may be granted to the remainder in accordance with those
provisions of the law which apply to all.

Article 14. As a matter of principle the Church retains the right
to appoint freely to all Church offices and benefices without the
cooperation of the State or of civil communities, insofar as other provisions have not been made in previous Concordats mentioned in
Article 2. The regulation made for appointment to the Metropolitan see of Freiburg (the Ecclesiastical Province of the Upper Rhine) is to
be duly applied to the two suffragan bishoprics of Rottenburg and
Mainz, as well as to the bishopric of Meissen. With regard to Rottenburg and Mainz the same regulation holds for appointments to
the Cathedral Chapter, and for the administration of the right of
patronage. Furthermore, there is accord on the following points:

1. Catholic clerics who hold an ecclesiastical office in Germany
or who exercise pastoral or educational functions must:

(a) Be German citizens.

(b) Have matriculated from a German secondary school.

(c) Have studied philosophy and theology for at least three
years at a German State University, a German ecclesiastical college, or a papal college in Rome.

2. The Bull nominating Archbishops, Coadjutors "cum jure successionis," or appointing a "Praelatus nullius," will not be
issued until the name of the appointee has been submitted to
the representative of the National Government in the territory
concerned, and until it has been ascertained that no objections
of a general political nature exist.

By agreement between Church and State, Paragraph 1, sections
(a) (b) and (c) may be disregarded or set aside.

Article 15. Religious Orders and Congregations are not subject
to any special restrictions on the part of the State, either as regards
their foundation, the erection of their various establishments, their
number, the selection of members (save for the special provisions of
paragraph 2 of this article), pastoral activity, education, care of the
sick and charitable work, or as regards the management of their affairs
and the administration of their property.

Religious Superiors whose headquarters are within Germany
must be German citizens. Provincials and other Superiors of Orders,
whose headquarters lie outside Germany, have the right of visitation
of those of their establishments which lie within Germany.

The Holy See will endeavor to ensure that the provincial organi zation of conventual establishments within the German Reich shall be
such that, as far as possible, German establishments do not fall under
the jurisdiction of foreign provincials. Agreements may be made with
the Reich Government in cases where the small number of houses
makes a special German province impracticable, or where special
grounds exist for the retention of a provincial organization which is
firmly established and has acquired an historic nature.

Article 16. Before bishops take possession of their dioceses they
are to take an oath of fealty either to the Reich Representative of the
State concerned, or to the President of the Reich, according to the
following formula: "Before God and on the Holy Gospels I swear
and promise as becomes a bishop, loyalty to the German Reich and
to the State of ... I swear and promise to honor the legally constituted Government and to cause the clergy of my diocese to honor it.
In the performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the
welfare and the interests of the German Reich, I will endeavor to
avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it."

Article 17. The property and other rights of public corporation,
institutions, foundations, and associations of the Catholic Church
regarding their vested interests, are guaranteed according to the
common law of the land.

No building dedicated to public worship may be destroyed for
any reason whatsoever without the previous consent of ecclesiastical
authorities concerned.

Article 18. Should it become necessary to abrogate the performance of obligations undertaken by the State towards the Church,
whether based on law, agreement, or special charter, the Holy See
and the Reich will elaborate in amicable agreement the principles
according to which the abrogation is to be carried out.

Legitimate traditional rights are to be considered as titles in law.

Such abrogation of obligations must be compensated by an
equivalent in favor of the claimant.

Article 19. Catholic Theological Faculties in State Universities
are to be maintained. Their relation to ecclesiastical authorities will be
governed by the respective Concordats and by special Protocols
attached to the same, and with due regard to the laws of the Church in their regard. The Reich Government will endeavor to secure for all
these Catholic Faculties in Germany a uniformity of practical administration corresponding to the general spirit and tenor of the various
agreements concerned.

Article 20. Where other agreements do not exist, the Church has
the right to establish theological and philosophical colleges for the
training of its clergy, which institutions are to be wholly dependent
on the ecclesiastical authorities if no State subsidies are sought.

The establishment, management, and administration of theological seminaries and hostels for clerical students, within the limits of
the law applicable to all, is exclusively the prerogative of the ecclesiastical authorities.

Article 21. Catholic religious instruction in elementary, senior,
secondary, and vocational schools constitutes a regular portion of the
curriculum, and is to be taught in accordance with the principles of
the Catholic Church. In religious instruction, special care will be
taken to inculcate patriotic, civic, and social consciousness and sense
of duty in the spirit of the Christian Faith and the moral code, precisely as in the case of other subjects. The syllabus and the selection
of textbooks for religious instruction will be arranged by consultative
agreement with the ecclesiastical authorities, and these latter have the
right to investigate whether pupils are receiving religious instruction
in accordance with the teachings and requirements of the Church.
Opportunities for such investigation will be agreed upon with the
school authorities.

Article 22. With regard to the appointment of Catholic religious
instructors, agreement will be arrived at as a result of mutual consultation on the part of the bishop, those unfit for the further exercise
of their teaching functions, either on pedagogical grounds or by
reason of their moral conduct, may not be employed for religious
instruction so long as the obstacle remains.

Article 23. The retention of Catholic denomination schools and
the establishment of new ones is guaranteed. In all parishes in which
parents or guardians request it, Catholic elementary schools will be
established, provided that the number of pupils available appears to
be sufficient for a school managed and administered in accordance with the standards prescribed by the State, due regard being had to
the local conditions of school organizations.

Article 24. In all Catholic elementary schools only such teachers
are to be employed as are members of the Catholic Church, and who
guarantee to fulfill the special requirements of a Catholic school.

Within the framework of the general professional training of
teachers, arrangements will be made which will secure the formation
and training of Catholic teachers in accordance with the special
requirements of Catholic denominational schools.

Article 25. Religious Orders and Congregations are entitled to
establish and conduct private schools, subject to the general laws and
ordinances governing education. Insofar as these schools follow the
curriculum prescribed for State schools, those attending them acquire
the same qualifications as those attending State schools. The admission of members of religious Orders or Congregations to the
teaching office, and their appointment to elementary, secondary, or
senior schools, are subject to the general conditions applicable to all.

Article 26. With certain reservations pending a later comprehensive regulation of the marriage laws, it is understood that, apart
from cases of critical illness of one member of an engaged couple
which does not permit of a postponement, and in cases of great moral
emergency (the presence of which must be confirmed by the proper
ecclesiastical authority), the ecclesiastical marriage ceremony should
precede the civil ceremony. In such cases the pastor is in duty bound
to notify the matter immediately at the Registrar's office.

Article 27. The Church will accord provision to the German
army for the spiritual guidance of its Catholic officers, personnel, and
other officials, as well as for the families of the same.

The administration of such pastoral care for the army is to be
vested in the army bishop. The latter's ecclesiastical appointment is to
be made by the Holy See after contact has been made with the Reich
Government in order to select a suitable candidate who is agreeable
to both parties.

The ecclesiastical appointment of military chaplains and other military clergy will be made after previous consultations with the appropriate authorities of the Reich by the army bishop. The army bishop may appoint only such chaplains as receive permission from their diocesan
bishop to engage in military pastoral work, together with a certificate of
suitability. Military chaplains have the rights of parish priests with regard
to the troops and other army personnel assigned to them.