Logging – illustrative photo.
Prague – The Archbishopric of Prague made a profit of 213 million crowns for the year 2022. It owes this to the efficiency of its forest management and above-average timber prices. On the contrary, a significant expenditure for the archbishopric last year was the financial support of parishes in the Prague archdiocese of almost 150 million crowns. Representatives of the archdiocese told journalists this today when they presented new rental apartments in Prague in which the archdiocese is investing.
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Rental housing is supposed to be one of the pillars of the economy for the archdiocese after 2030, when state support to the church will end based on the Property Equalization Act. Forest management and financial products should be the other pillars.
“Last year, the prices of wood rose extremely high, we sold a cubic meter for 2030 crowns, which is extreme. Not only high-quality wood, but all wood material appreciated, our foresters did everything to sell all the wood,” said today the vicar general of the Prague archdiocese, Jan Package. According to him, the foresters also managed to stop bark beetles in many cases and new trees were planted on 750 hectares.
In order to do business in rental housing, the Prague archdiocese founded the real estate company XPlace. According to representatives of the archdiocese, a large part of the apartments in Prague's Dejvice and Zličín are rented, today they presented to journalists two houses with 33 rental apartments in Střížkov. 30 percent of the apartments are reserved in them. The archdiocese is preparing other similar projects again in Prague and in regions near the capital, housing for young families should be in apartment buildings in Milovice or Kolín. In Dejvice, the Friends of Miloš Zeman association rented premises from the company X Place, and the former president opened his office there.
The Catholic Church is planning investments to prepare for the time when, from 2030, it will not receive a contribution from the state for its activities . Balík has already stated that in 2030 the Prague Archdiocese will need half a billion crowns to cover its main activity, i.e. spiritual activity. They must therefore earn at least this amount, primarily from economic activity, which will be supplemented by donations from believers and possible grants from the state or other sources.
The Property Equalization Act came into force on January 1, 2013. It included in addition to the release of immovable and movable property, also financial compensation for property that the state cannot release. Over the course of 30 years, the 16 churches that entered into a contract with the state will receive around 80 to 90 billion crowns after taking inflation into account.
