Original scientific paper

Social (In)Sensitivity of the Croatian Church

Stjepan Baloban orcid.org/0000-0002-3138-3222 ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

In recent years, the most current topic in Croatia, as a transitional country, is social sensitivity, i.e. the sensitivity of the Church. The article deals with this topic on the basis of three socio-religious surveys conducted in Croatia between 1997 and 1999. The first two surveys, »Religion and Morality in Croatia« and »European Value Survey EVS 1999,« were projects of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Zagreb University. The third survey titled Aufbruch (Beginning) was conducted in ten transitional countries. The special quality of this work lies in the fact that it deals with the opinions of those Croatian citizens who are professed Catholics. It is about all Catholics, i.e. those practicing and those distanced believers.
The first part of the article seeks answers regarding the sensitivity of Croatian Catholics to the needs of different categories of people experiencing difficulties and their readiness to engage themselves for others in voluntary work. The results show that the social sensitivity of Catholics is well developed in Croatia at 75%. Nevertheless, nearly three out four of Catholics are not engaged in any kind of voluntary activity.
The second part of the article deals with the opinions of Croatian Catholics about the official representatives of the Church. It deals with the following questions: in what way are Catholics satisfied with answers to particular realities of life given by the Church; the Church in the eyes of its believers and social sensitivity of priests. Interesting and useful results were obtained as to how Croatian Catholics see their official representatives of the Church. Nevertheless, to get the whole picture on this issue, a survey among the representatives of the Church should be conducted.
The final part of the article shows that there is plenty of good will as to social issues within the Croatian Church, but there is a lack of mechanisms that make it possible to translate this good will into concrete activities. Within this context, there is a suggestion to seek new mechanisms in relation to pastoral and catechesis and to encourage the development of socially oriented spirituality on the basis of the social teachings of the Church.

Keywords

social sensitivity; social engagement; voluntary work; Croatian Catholics; official representatives of the Church

Hrčak ID:

29329

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/29329

Publication date:

24.4.2001.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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