In a statement on Saturday, the Vatican Press Office said that the agreement establishes, among other things, “norms on the State recognition of schools of ecclesiastical administration and the teaching of the Catholic religion in Catholic schools.”
The agreement also regulates “the activity of the Catholic Church in the pastoral and social/health/and charitable areas; the ecclesiastical contribution, and the care of ecclesiastical buildings” that are included in the preservation of monuments.
The “role of the Catholic Church is recognized in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, where 78,000 Catholics constitute 12% of a total population of 660,000 inhabitants,” it concludes.
The agreement was signed in the Consistorial Palace of Bremen on Nov. 21.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, former apostolic nuncio in Germany, and current Vatican secretary for Relations with States, signed the document on behalf of the Holy See. Henning Scherf, president of the Senate, signed for the Land of Bremen.
