Croatia, Countries
Standing
Concerns Legal Status
Currently States Four agreements with the Holy See concluded in 1996 and 1998 give the Catholic Church state funding, tax exemptions, military and hospital chaplaincies and religious instruction in state schools on terms no other body holds; sixteen other communities have narrower agreements.
Croatia's relationship with the Catholic Church rests on four agreements concluded with the Holy See in 1996 and 1998, granting the Church state funding, tax exemptions, chaplaincies in the military and hospitals, and religious instruction in state schools on terms no other religious body in Croatia holds; sixteen other religious communities hold separate, narrower agreements granting fewer benefits. The State Department's report records this tiered arrangement as the country's current legal structure without characterising it as either unequal treatment or a legitimate recognition of the Catholic Church's particular historical role in Croatian national identity, which is how it is defended domestically. The dispute, where one exists, is between minority communities holding the narrower agreements, who read the tiered structure as unequal treatment, and the state's position that the historical concordat reflects a distinct church-state relationship. Because the concordat is a treaty-level agreement with the Holy See, revising the tier would require renegotiating an international agreement rather than passing a domestic law.
Source International Religious Freedom Report, United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom