Berlin and the Vatican: Historic State Treaty for Theology!

Berlin and the Vatican: Historic State Treaty for Theology!

In a historically significant moment, Berlin signed a state treaty with the Holy See for the first time on September 29, 2025. This agreement represents an essential step towards consolidating cooperation between the capital and the Roman Catholic Church. The city's Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner, and the Apostolic Nuncio Nikola Eterović were the signatories of this agreement, which creates a legally binding foundation for the Institute for Catholic Theology at Humboldt University, as Vatican News reported.

One goal of this state treaty is to strengthen relations between the city and the Catholic Church and to deepen cooperation in the field of Catholic theology. Eterović emphasized how important the role of theologians is today and spoke about the necessary intellectual debates on topics such as artificial intelligence and its impact on humanity. Archbishop Heiner Koch praised the agreement and emphasized that the institute makes a significant contribution to education, knowledge transfer and integration.

Strengthening theological education

The institute mentioned, which started in the winter semester of 2019/20, offers courses in Catholic theology at bachelor's and master's levels. Loud rbb24 Aspects such as the range of courses, organizational integration and the appointment of professors are also regulated within the framework of the state treaty. There are currently four regular professorships, one junior professorship and one third-party funded professorship. With 85 students, the institute still has a lot of growth potential compared to the Protestant Theological Faculty, which is very popular with eleven professorships and 453 students.

“We have created a reliable framework for collaboration here,” emphasized Science Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD). This gives students the stability they need for their future activities in schools, extracurricular educational work, religious organizations, associations, media and science.

A look at the separation of church and state

In Germany, the relationship between churches and state is characterized by partnership-based cooperation, while a formal state church does not exist. This “limping separation” as enshrined in Articles 135 to 141 of the Weimar Constitution and the Basic Law ( Wikipedia ), creates space for cooperation between institutions. For example, our Basic Law regulates that the state cannot prescribe the content of a religious community, but can still include its organization and some activities.

The signing of the state treaty not only marks a future expansion of study opportunities, but also shows that the Catholic Church in Berlin has a firm place in society. While the debate about the role of religion in the public sphere and the neutrality of the state remains constantly in tune with the times, one thing is clear: the path towards more intensive cooperation has clearly been paved with this treaty.