Despite tight church finances, the Catholic University (KU) of Eichstätt will continue to exist in its current form, at least in the coming years. “The Free State and the Catholic Church are jointly committed to the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and agree that the range of courses and research capacities should be maintained over the next five years,” said the Freising Bishops’ Conference on Tuesday.
The evening before, representatives of the Ministry of Science, the Bishops’ Conference and the sponsoring foundation had been looking for a solution for the traditional university in Altmühltal, Upper Bavaria, which has been state-recognized for more than 40 years. “The state and the church stand by the Catholic university, including in the future, but the financial opportunities that come from the church have become more difficult,” explained Cardinal Reinhard Marx during a discussion in the Munich Press Club on Tuesday.
Therefore, as a first step, the Free State will now relieve the burden on the church and assume half of the benefits exceeding the obligations under the concordat, amounting to at least 5.5 million euros annually. The church, in turn, undertakes to bear the other half, explained Marx. In addition, a joint working group should examine how financing can be secured beyond 2028 in times of declining church tax revenue.
This year, according to the Bishops’ Conference, the Bavarian (arch)dioceses contributed 21.6 million euros to finance the only Catholic university in the German-speaking region. Of this, 10.6 million euros were based on the concordat between state and church, 11 million euros went beyond this agreed framework. Next year, the church’s concordat share will be 11.5 million euros.