FINANCING OF THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES FROM THE STATE BUDGET: CASE OF CROATIA

Financing from the state budget of the Catholic Church in Croatia is arranged by the international treaties between the Republic of Croatia and the Holy See. Many other religious communities are also receiving funds from the state budget on the basis of the Law on the Legal Status of Religious Communities, if they signed special treaties on issues of mutual interest signed with the Republic of Croatia. In this paper we evaluate the widespread assumption that Catholic Church in Croatia receives more funds than other religious communities, both nominally and in terms of the membership. The analysis based on the descriptive and comparative analysis of publicly available data for 2016 confirmed that Catholic Church in Croatia is indeed entitled to the greatest share of available public funds. However, two Jewish religious communities jointly received most funds per member (HRK 1,792 based on the treaty or a total of HRK 5,042 per member if other funds from the state budget are added). When it comes to the Catholic Church, only the funds guaranteed by the treaties were paid from the state budget in 2016 (amounting for HRK 182 per member). In line with this, it is necessary to address the issue of unequal legal and financial treatment of religious communities in Croatia. In order to increase transparency, it would also be desirable to publish figures on funds given to all religious communities on a yearly basis.