PRAGUE- A possible agreement between the state and non-Catholic churches should not be of a legal character but should be only a confirmation that they have an equal position to the Catholic Church, ensued from Wednesday's meeting between Foreign Minister Cyril Soboda and church representatives.
For this reason some churches do not consider such an agreement necessary, while others would like to sign it particularly for this reason.
"To reach an agreement among churches represented in the Ecumenical Council of Churches is not easy, and to reach a joint position, which would be the best in reference to the state, is almost impossible," Protestant Bohemian Brethern church synodal senior and Ecumenical Council head Pavel Smetana said.
The Bohemian Brethren church believes that a good law on churches should be a sufficient guarantee of its free position in the Czech Republic, Smetana said.
"In our atheistic environment, the state would express by such an agreement a signal that the church is a real partner," Czechoslovak Hussite Church patriarch Jan Schwarz said.
According to Schwarz, his church would prefer if the state signed separate agreements with individual member churches of the Ecumenical Council of Churches.
According to Schwarz, the Adventist Church is of a similar opinion.
Other churches, for example the Pentecostal Apostolic Church, are not interested in an agreement with the sate at all. The Apostolic Church also opposes the inter-state agreement with the Vatican, which has already been passed but not yet ratified by parliament.
The Czech Republic is the last post-communist country not to have an agreement with the Vatican yet. It nevertheless already acts according to its spirit.
The Pentecostal Christians mainly argue that in some European countries, relations between the state and non-Catholic churches worsened after the signing of the treaty with the Vatican.
Svoboda, however, assured the representatives of about two dozen churches at Wednesday's meeting that the agreement with the Vatican does not put Catholics at advantage nor does it discriminate against non-Catholics.
Schwarz is of the same opinion. "The Vatican is a state and the Roman Catholic Church is an international entity. This is a fact which the state must deal with," he said.