Concordat details

This concordat

Concordat

A concordat is an agreement between the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a sovereign state on religious matters. Legally, they are international treaties. They often includes both recognition and privileges for the Catholic Church in a particular country...

 regulates church-state relation in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, with particular emphasis on Catholic schools and religious education. It has since been supplemented by further agreements, such as one concerning schools.

The concordat was negotiated by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later pope Pius XII) for the Holy See and Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss

Engelbert Dollfuss

Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

 with his Foreign Minister, Kurt Schuschnigg

Kurt Schuschnigg

Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Germany’s invasion of Austria, , in March 1938...

, for Austria. It was signed on 5 July 1933 and came into force on 1 May 1934. The concordat was essentially incorporated into the new constitution by which the Catholic Church, through the "Christian corporative state" (Ständestaat) greatly increased its influence, especially in regard to schools, marriage laws and Church appointments. After the German invasion in 1938 the concordat was out of force until the end of World War II. There followed a long controversy about its validity until it was officially recognised by the Austrian Government in 1957.

As with other concordats negotiated by Pacelli, it involves the state's acceptance of the 1917 Code of Canon Law

Canon law (Catholic Church)

The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...

, of which he was the main architect. The Code gave the Holy See control over the appointment of bishops and other prelates, and ensured that it had the final word in matters of Church policy and doctrine. This is reflected in the provisions of the Austrian concordat. Like the Reichskonkordat

Reichskonkordat

The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...

, which Pacelli also negotiated, the Austrian one contains a Secret Supplement.