Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 84 No. 3, 2014.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
Inclusion and Exclusion of the Church and Inclusion and Exclusion in the Church in Relation to the Catholic Church in Croatia from the Year 1990 until Today
Ana Thea Filipović
orcid.org/0000-0002-0119-1940
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The human community is a living organism and that is why exclusion of certain individuals or groups will necessarily reflect itself on the rest of the society, while it also often has its cause in it. Exclusion harms the society as a whole, which makes the overcoming of social exclusion one of the most relevant social tasks of contemporary societies. The concepts of inclusion and exclusion are used in this article as analytical instruments for a reflection on the level and quality of connectedness of the Catholic Church in Croatia with the state and civil society and for a reflection on inclusion within the Church itself. This study focused on the period between the first multiparty elections in Croatia in 1990 until today. An analysis of facts, documents, and relevant literature allowed the author to single out those factors which have favoured cooperative inclusion of the Church among state institutions, on the basis of legal contracts, and its activity within civil society related to the creation of an independent state and the 1991–1995 war. Some confusion related to new relations and roles has been noted. This confusion is due to the fact that almost overnight religious communities have crossed from the private sphere to public sphere. As a religious community with the biggest number of members, the Catholic Church has transformed from a marginal political factor (since it had no other political options) to an institution with a high level of influence in the political community. Although its role was welcomed and accepted in the first few years of establishing the new state and building up a democratic society, later on, the Church was more and more exposed to a public critique, as well as to a crisis which also affected the state as a model of political organisation. Besides being involved in the institutions of the state, the Catholic Church also got involved in the civil society: primarily through its peace-making, humanitarian, and charitable activities focused on dealing with consequences of the war among population and, later on, through its public declarations made through its bodies and lay associations and aimed at defending one or the other Christian value in the society. It is precisely through this latter role that one can notice unwillingness of a part of Croatian society to accept the Church as an equal partner in public discourse, but also of the Church to invest more effort into dialogue and cooperation and to be more sensitive towards contemporary culture, which would all make its advocacy of specific Catholic values more authentic. Towards the end of the article, the author reflects on the level and quality of inclusion within the Church itself. This is an important issue in light of the current ecclesiology of communion that promotes seeing all believers as subjects in ecclesial life, maturity of faith and Christian consciousness of all believers of fundamental equality and of the task to participate in the mission of the Church as a presupposition of a fruitful inclusion of the Church in society. Although, in the meantime, there have been many changes in that respect, numerous difficulties and obstacles have also emerged. These call for a much higher level of openness that should include changes in ecclesial structures so that those mechanisms responsible for exclusion of believers and certain groups of believers within the Church itself might be removed.
Ključne riječi
Catholic Church in Croatia; Church and state; Church and civil society; communio – ecclesiology; mechanisms of exclusion
Hrčak ID:
129346
URI
Datum izdavanja:
4.11.2014.
Posjeta: 2.248 *