Řešení vztahu státu a církve v Polsku a ČSR po první světové válce

The problem of demarcating church dioceses to fit in with the borders of new states arose following the end of the First World War. As the pope had declared that he did not consider the successor states to be the successors of the defunct powers, the new state structures were forced to enter into negotiations with the Holy See on new arrangements of their mutual relations. Talks with largely Catholic Poland ended successfully in 1925 with the closure of a Concordat which demarcated dioceses in line with the borders of the new state and regulated mutual relations in accordance with the Polish constitution. The religious situation in the Czechoslovak Republic was complicated by the “Away from Rome” movement which caused great numerical losses to Czech Catholicism in the first years of the republic. The number of Roman Catholics in the Czechoslovak Republic fell from 11.7 million in 1910 to 10.4 million in 1921. The greatest fall in numbers occurred in Bohemia (20 %), while the decline in Moravia and Silesia amounted to just 4 %. The industrial areas of Plzeň, Kladno, Prague and northwest Bohemia, and the Ostrava region in Moravia, were the worst affected. On the whole, more men than women left the Catholic Church. 76 % of men and 80 % of women in the Czech Lands declared themselves to be Catholics.