Folia Theologica 5. (1994)

Hugo Schwendenwein: Church and state in Austria

CHURCH AND STATE IN AUSTRIA

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procedures regarding anything made known to them in connection with their sacred ministry.

9. As already said, in its status as public-law corporation the Church in some aspects resembles that of the State. But this similarity is not general: in its internal legal affairs the Church is free and not obliged to observe the principles of the Austrian Constitution. The internal law of the Church and its application are not subject to the control of the Austrian Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court. There is also a clear distinction between the Church and other public-law institutions: the Austrian State grants the Church complete freedom in “ihren inneren Angelegenheiten” — internal affairs, doctrine, cult and organization.

10. The Austrian State thus warrants religious liberty, but it also promotes the development and advancement of its citizens’ interests, e.g. in the areas of sports, culture, and also religion. State assistance to religion in public institutions (religious instruction in public schools and schools recognized under public law, military pastoral service etc.) is not opposed to the principle of religious impartiality, which is one of the fundamental principles of the Austrian Constitution: all legally recognized churches and denominations enjoy equal rights, but equality before the law does not mean uniformity.

In promoting the religious welfare of its citizens, the State is bound to respect the self-definition, consciousness, norms and religious rules of the individual denominations. Thus Austrian Federal law provides not only general norms for all churches and denominations but also certain special norms for individual ones, e.g.

— the Concordat and additional international treaties for the Catholic Church,

— the Protestants’ Act (Protestantengesetz),

— the Orthodox Church Act (Orthodoxengesetz),

— the Israelites’ Act (Israelitengesetz), and

— the Islam Act (Islamgesetz), for these respective denominations.

All other (mostly very little) denominations are covered by the Recognition Act (Anerkennungsgesetz) of 1874, which gives them free hand for their concrete religious organization.

11. Some regulations depend on the respective number of church members. The Catholic Church, the largest of all denominations, has four the-