Will it be a wise decision?” “

“A poor show in the international field”. That’s how the spokesman of the Czech Episcopal Conference, Daniel Herman, stigmatized the decision of the Czech Parliament on 21 May not to ratify the accord between the Czech Republic and the Holy See signed in July 2002. A similar situation of stalemate also exists in Slovenia where – as reported to SirEurope by Msgr. Anton Stres , auxiliary bishop of Maribor and expert in legal questions – “the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Dimitrij Rupel, and Msgr. Jean Louis Tauran, Foreign Minister of the Holy See, signed a first international accord at Ljubljana on 14 December 2001, regulating the situation and juridical status of the Catholic Church in Slovenia”. “Unfortunately – he concluded – we are still awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court which must rule on the constitutionality of the accord”. There are just over 1,600,000 Slovene Catholics out of a total population of just under two million. There are three ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 805 parishes, 12 bishops and 1150 priests, both secular and religious. A right denied. “It was an accord difficult to reach – explains Msgr. Stres –. It was especially the parties of the left and the former Communists who opposed it and still oppose it today. They threatened to call a referendum. And to prevent it, the Government decided to submit the accord to the scrutiny of the Constitutional Court. But so far no decision has been taken, and therefore Parliament’s ratification of the accord is still not on the agenda. We have now been waiting since December 2001 amid the silence of the media controlled by these political forces”. Among the causes of this ‘stalemate’ the bishop cites the political bias of the Court, “composed exclusively of members of the left” and recalls that “it’s the same court that in November 2002 ruled against the complaint presented by some Slovene Catholic parents regarding the ban on teaching Catholic religion in state schools. The current prohibition of any confessional activity in state schools, including religious education, is, according to the current Constitutional Court, in conformity with the Slovene Constitution and the European Convention of human rights. So Catholic religion cannot be taught in state schools in Slovenia”. The difficulties of the Slovene Church. In this perspective, the importance of the international accord with the Holy See can be understood – an importance both political and psychological. “It would be the first stone, the first step towards the regularization of other aspects that are still on hold”, says Msgr. Stres, with genuine conviction. These aspects include, for example, “the financial and economic support of the Church that still lives entirely from the donations of its faithful”, and the right to teach religion in schools: “the Church continues to ask for the respect of parents’ right to give a religious education to their children”. Other aspects are “religious freedom in hospitals, in hospices, in the police, in the army and in prisons. Military chaplains exist in the army (three Catholics and one Evangelical). In the other sectors there are priests who work without remuneration and without effective appointment”. “The accord – he adds – confirms the traditional principles of freedom and autonomy inside the Church: freedom of worship, of communication with the Holy See, the juridical recognition of ecclesiastical persons, their right to own property, private schools, religious liberty in public spaces. No provision of this accord will cause modifications to the existing legislation”. “The difficulties that have emerged in response to this first accord between Slovenia and the Holy See – concludes Stres – clearly illustrate the political and social climate in which the Slovene Church has to work: a climate of secular animosity but one that poses a very important challenge for the Church: how to improve her own image in the media. From 1999 to 2002 we held a Synod that fixed priorities: the promotion of the laity, education and youth, the promotion and evangelization of family life and charitable assistance. It’s from here we need to depart”.