Prime Minister Fischer received by the Pope

Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer paid an official visit to the Vatican on Saturday, where he was received by Pope Benedict XVI and other leading Catholic Church dignitaries. The Czech prime minister gave the Pope a commemorative gold medal minted on occasion of the 20th anniversary of the canonisation of St Agnes of Bohemia. Mr. Fischer also laid flowers on the graves of the previous pope John Paul II and Czech Cardinal Josef Beran.

Relations between the Czech Republic and the Vatican are hampered by the fact that the Czech Republic has not yet ratified the Czech-Vatican treaty on bilateral relations. Both countries' representatives agreed on the text of the treaty, which also concerns the position of the Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, in the late 1990s, but the Czech Chamber of Deputies failed to approve the document in 2003. The Vatican does not intend to change the text of the original treaty and still expects the Czech Republic to ratify it in its present form.