Castle recognised that talks on cathedral are needed - cardinal

The head of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic has said that the state has acknowledged the need for talks between it and the Church regarding the ownership of St Vitus' Cathedral. Writing on his own website, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk says that bilateral discussions would be held between Church and state this week about transferring the cathedral back to Prague Castle. Earlier this year, the Czech Supreme Court cancelled a previous ruling that the cathedral belongs to the church and said that it should be returned to the state. So far the church has refused to hand it over saying that it still owns the building's furnishings. The fourteenth-century cathedral was confiscated by the former communist regime and its ownership has been the subject of a bitter legal dispute between church and state since the early 1990s.

Author: Coilin O'Connor