Art. 1. The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of
the Catholic religion.
It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the limit of those laws
which are applicable to all, to manage and regulate her own affairs independently, and,
within the framework of her own competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on
her members.
. . . .
Art. 4. . . . Instructions, ordinances, Pastoral Letters, official diocesan gazettes, and other enactments regarding the spiritual direction of the faithful issued by the ecclesiastical authorities within the framework of their competence may be published without hindrance and brought to the notice of the faithful in the form hitherto usual.
Art. 5. . . . The State will take proceedings in accordance with the general provisions of state law against any outrage offered to the clergy personally or directed against their ecclesiastical character, or any interference with the duties of their office, and in case of need will provide official protection.
Art. 6. Clerics and religious are freed from any obligation to undertake official
offices and such obligations as, according to the provisions of Canon Law, are
incompatible with the clerical or religious state [serve on juries, etc.] . . .
. . . . . . . .
Art. 14. . . . Catholic clerics who hold an ecclesiastical office in Germany or
who exercise pastoral or educational functions must:
(a) Be German citizens. . . .
(b) Have matriculated from a German secondary school
(c) Have studied philosophy and theology for at least three years at a German State University, a German ecclesiastical college, or a papal college in Rome
Art. 15. Religious orders and congregations are not subject to any special restrictions on the part of the State, either as regards their foundation, the erection of their various establishments, their number . . ., pastoral activity, education, . . .or as regards the management of their affairs, and the administration of their property. . . .
Art. 16. Before bishops take possession of their dioceses they are to take an
oath of fealty either to the Reich representative of the state concerned, or to the President
of the Reich, according to the following formula:
"Before God and on the Holy Gospels I swear and promise, as becomes a bishop,
loyalty to the German Reich and to the State of . . . . I swear and promise to honor the
legally constituted government and to cause the clergy of my diocese to honor it. In the
performance of my spiritual office and in my solicitude for the welfare and the interests of
the German Reich, I will endeavor to avoid all detrimental acts which might endanger it."
. . . .
Art. 21. Catholic religious instruction in elementary, senior, secondary and vocational schools constitutes a regular portion of the curriculum, and is to be taught in accordance with the principles of the Catholic Church. In religious instruction, special care will be taken to inculcate patriotic, civic and social consciousness and sense of duty in the spirit of the Christian Faith and the moral code, precisely as in the case of other subjects . .
Art. 23. The retention of Catholic denominational schools and the establishment of new ones, is guaranteed . . .
Art. 32. In view of the special situation existing in Germany, and in view of the guarantee provided through this Concordat of legislation directed to safeguard the rights and privileges of the Roman Catholic Church in the Reich and its component states, the Holy See will prescribe regulations for the exclusion of clergy and members of religious orders from membership of political parties, and from engaging in work on their behalf.
Signed . . . in the Vatican City, July 20th, 1933 [Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli; Franz von Papen]