engleski

Church and State in New Social Circumstances. The Croatian Story

The article focuses Church-State relations after the fall of communism in Croatia. First part of the paper reports the religious situation in communist period and after that major changes in legal and actual social position of Churches in Croatia. Special attention is given to the Catholic Church in the context of analyses of four Agreements signed between Croatia and Holly See in 1997 and 1998. These Agreements are analysed also in the context of development of democratic political system, experiences from other European countries and position of other and new non-traditional religious communities in Croatia. The last part of article focuses the role of religion in public arena what is the most distinctive difference from the previously existing situation: controversies about religious instruction in public schools, religious presence in media, question about abortion and changes in Abortion law. At the end some dilemmas about the relation between religion and traditional and modern (post-modern) tendences in society are highlighted as well.

Church; State; relations;Croatia; post-communism

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