Church Catholics in Glarus want to introduce voting rights for foreigners
The Catholic Church of the Canton of Glarus has initiated the introduction of voting rights for foreigners. The Catholics of Glarus without a Swiss passport are the only ones in Switzerland without a political voice in the parishes and the national church.
26.06.2024, 14:21
SDA
The Catholic Church Council of the Canton of Glarus wants to amend the church constitution, as it wrote in a press release. The aim is to introduce voting rights for foreigners in all Catholic parishes and the national church.
Anyone with a residence permit should also be allowed to have a say. Around 3,000 foreign Catholics live in the canton of Glarus.
The bill is currently undergoing consultation. The Glarus cantonal council welcomed the planned legal changes in principle, as it wrote in a press release on Wednesday. However, it is of the opinion that it would be better for each municipality to decide for itself on the introduction of voting rights for foreigners.
However, the canton's Catholic Church Council had previously planned to make binding changes to the constitution for all parishes. The feedback from the consultation process will be discussed in the fall. Votes in the canton's six parishes are planned for the first half of 2025.
Last Catholic national church
The constitutional amendment initiated by the Church Council requires the approval of a majority of the parishes, according to the Church Council's press release. In addition, the amendment must still be approved by the Landrat, the Glarus cantonal parliament. The new constitutional provision could come into force at the beginning of 2026 at the earliest.
According to the press release, the canton of Glarus is the last canton in which Catholics without a Swiss passport have no say in matters of church state law.
