A conference of Bishops is being organized. - Söder advocates for concluding talks surrounding church payments.
Markus Söder, the Minister President of Bavaria (CSU), advocates putting a stop to debates surrounding government funding for Germany's religious institutions. He further desires to have this topic permanently frozen, as per his statements in Munich during a remembrance event for Bavaria's Concordat's centenary. The majority of his fellow state governors support his stance, and most states, excluding Bavaria, cannot afford to withdraw their support, which amounts to a staggering billion euros annually.
Churches in Germany were provided with government funds following the expropriation of German abbeys and churches in the early 19th century during a process called secularization. As a result, with the exception of Hamburg and Bremen, all federal states make annual payments to the Catholic and Protestant Churches. This amounted to around 550 million euros every year nationwide as of recently. These funds lead to non-affiliated taxpayers contributing towards religious communities.
A major controversy arose over possibly abolishing government funding while offering a billion-euro sum to the churches. For several years, a working group under the Federal Ministry of the Interior has been discussing this matter.
Söder compared the suggestion of giving Catholic and Protestant Churches a billion-dollar payment in Germany to "a culture war". He implied that it would spawn heated debates regarding envy.
For 2023, the Bavarian state budget sets aside 77 million euros in government grants for the Roman Catholic Church and close to 26 million euros for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. Moreover, there are 27 million euros stipulated for church buildings.
Söder declared in Munich that the Bavarian Concordat, which includes financial regulations and government authority over appointing Bavarian Catholic bishops, filling theological positions at universities, or hiring Catholic religious instructors in public schools when the church consents, will not be addressed during his tenure. The Munich Archbishop, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, termed the arrangement a "smashing success".
