Review article
Legal status of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Croatia: from totalitarianism to democracy
Ivan Jakulj
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split
Abstract
The author first presents the main models accepted in the relations between the Church and State in the last hundred years; then he shows the position of the Catholic Church in communist Yugoslavia that accepted atheism as a state ideology. The status of the Catholic Church and later on of other religious communities in FNRY (Federal National Republic of Yugoslavia) and SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) was regulated by the constitutions of 1945, 1963 and 1974, and by the laws on the legal status of religious communities of 1953, 1965 and 1987, as well as by a couple of regulations which stipulated the way of implementing these constitutional and legal provisions. The most important document on an international level was the Protocol signed between the Holy See and SFRY in 1966, by which the laws of Yugoslavia were accepted as a sufficient degree of religious freedom in a totalitarian and atheisticstate. After the State of Croatia was established, the status of the Ca tholic Church was regulated by the Constitution of 1999 which pro vides that all religious communities are separated from the state and that all are equal before the law, that they are free to carry out re ligious rites, establish schools, colleges and social welfare and cha rity institutions, but all this in accordance with the laws of the Re public of Croatia. The Holy See was among the first to recognize the Republic of Croatia, and then negotiations started resulting in four signed agreements which completely regulate the rights of the Catholic Church in Croatia. On the basis of these agreements, and especially of the Agreement on Legal Questions, which is the most important document, other subagreement acts were signed. In 2002 the Government of the Republic of Croatia passed the Law on the Le gal Position of Religious Communities enabling other religious communities to realize the same rights as the Catholic Church. Fi nally, the paper presents the elements that influenced the develop ment of good relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Croa tia after the agreements were signed, as well as the current state of those relations.
Keywords
Church in SFRY; relations between the Church and State; religious communities; freedom of religion; Law on Religious Communities; Protocol; agreements between the Holy See and Republic of Croatia; freedom of religion in the Republic of Croatia
Hrčak ID:
147640
URI
Publication date:
29.10.2015.
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