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The crosses and pews are back at Fakultni Nemocnice Pod Petrinem. The Czech government returned the teaching hospital to the St. Karel Boromejsky Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in November 1992. When the communists seized the property not long after taking over the country in 1948, the crosses were removed from the buildings and the inside of the chapel was destroyed. The large statue of Christ in the courtyard, presumably too heavy to move, patiently endured more than 40 years of totalitarian rule. Now workers are rebuilding the chapel, and 40 nuns are among the nursing staff of 200. "It's natural because this was a church hospital for 100 years," explains Eugen Liska, the deputy director, as he walks proudly through the halls.
Though the church owns the building and property, the government still pays for equipment, medication, salaries and the like. The state pays a symbolic rent of about 1,000 Czech crowns, or $40 U.S., a year to use the hospital. The church regained ownership when the 1952 confiscation was declared invalid because of a legal technicality.
But Fakultni Nemocnice Pod Petrinem is the exception not the rule when it comes to the restitution of church property in the Czech Republic. Hundreds of statues still wait patiently for crosses to return to schools, hospitals and monasteries. The freemarket-oriented Civic Democratic Party (ODS), the leading party in the governing coalition, has refused to pass a law that would allow across-the-board restitution of property to the Roman Catholic Church. Although two Christian parties hold 25 of the coalition's 105 seats in the 200-seat chamber, ODS knows it calls the shots. The opposition parties in parliament oppose restitution outright, so the Christian parties will have to adapt their bill to ODS's wishes if they want it to pass.
At stake is more than just a few chapels. The Catholic Church lays claim to 1,500 buildings (including 100 hospitals), 160,000 hectares of forest and 47,000 hectares of agricultural land. If successful in its claims, the church would become not only one of the largest landowners, but one of the largest landlords. The properties are still being used by the state, and if the church gets them back it will probably let the state keep using them for...