Catholicism in Switzerland

History

The status of Catholicism in Switzerland is complicated due to the existence of Landeskirchen (Catholic cantonal churches), imposed by anti-clerical cantonal governments in the 19th century and organised along democratic lines, who control the application of funds collected through church taxes. Pope Gregory XVI's encyclical letter of 1835, Commissum divinitus, addressed this issue after the publication of the Swiss cantonal Articles of Baden of 1834 in the canton of Aargau. The letter challenged the Swiss attempt to "allow secular power [to] dominate the Church, control its doctrine, or interfere so that it cannot promulgate laws concerning the holy ministry, divine worship, and the spiritual welfare of the faithful".