Croatian Activists Demand End to Church Concordats

Secular campaigners are organising a protest in Zagreb on Saturday, demanding abolition of Croatia's concordats with the Holy See, claiming they incur massive financial obligations and breach secular principles.

The Movement for Secular Croatia - an informal network of atheist, agnostic and secular NGOs and individuals, have called the protest 'Termination 4".

Croatia and the Holy See have signed four concordats regulating all the obligations of the state towards the Catholic Church.

The key concordats regulate how much money Church gets from the state budget and the role of the Church in education and culture  - which envisages religious education classes in state kindergartens and primary and high schools.

Although Croatia is predominantly Catholic - over 86 per cent of the population in the 2011 census declared themselves Catholic, and although the Church has a considerable place in Croat national history and identity, not everyone approves of the significant concessions given to the Church.

Alan Soric, a legal expert from the secularist NGO Protagora - part of the movement organising the protest - told BIRN the protest is being held because of "daily breaches of the secularity of the Croatian constitution" in implementing the concordats.

"In general, in the concordats, Croatia has only obligations, while the Church has rights," he said, pointing to Church's influence on education.

"Specifically, this especially concerns state schools, where Catholic religious education is held and pupils go to Catholic services," he said, mentioning also the controversy over the proposed merger of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Studies and the Catholic Theology Faculty in Zagreb.

Soric says the situation will not improve...