The faith of a country

A census of the population will be held in Slovakia from 13 to 21 May; it will also measure the size of the Catholic presence in the country. On this aspect and on the situation of the Slovak Church, Dana Jaceckova on behalf of SIR Europe interviewed the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia (KBS) and Archbishop of Bratislava, Mgr. Stanislav Zvolenský.According to the results of the Census 2001 – 74 % of inhabitants of Slovak republic claim to be Catholics. Next official Census will be in May this year. What are the expectations of the Catholic church? Will you encourage believers in any way to confess their faith officially?“Our expectations are in the God’s hands. Of course we wish to reach at least the same number as ten years ago, we even hope the figures could be higher because the number of inhabitants has grown since the last Census. But on the other side it’s clear to us that the liberal understanding of values has progressed a lot since 2001 and the mentality of society has changed. We also realize that last years have been marked by a worldwide massmedia campaign that emphasised some of the delicate problems within the Catholic church. All these facts are very well known to us and we presume they will have an impact on decisionmaking of inhabitants. That’s why we’ll await the results with humbleness. We try to encourage people through the pastoral letter and remind them that their official claim to be registered as catholics would be a great testimony of faith in our society. It’s very important in contemporary times marked by instability of values. We are also going to use billboards all over the country reminding people of the appeal of the pope John Paul II. who visited Slovakia three times and always exhorted especially young people not to be ashamed of their faith. We prepare a website offering a list of all the initiatives and projects of the Catholic church that can be useful not only for active believers but also for everybody else”.John Paul II. Who will be beatified 1 May was spiritually very close to Slovak people. The Holy See has recently approved the decree about the liturgical memory of this pope – it will be on 22 October in Vatican and Poland. What about Slovakia, will there be any interest to pay tribute to this great man in a form of the special liturgical memory?“I personally think that the feeling of friendship and spiritual closeness to John Paul II. in Slovakia is very deep. In my opinion people will want to have established the day of his liturgical memory. Of course, it would imply an official request from the Bishops’conference of Slovakia to the Congregation for the Divine Cult and the Discipline of Sacraments. I believe it will be a part of our agenda to be discussed at the next plenary in June”.Slovak minister of culture Daniel Krajcer, who’s department is in charge of relations with churches and religious communities, has opened the question of church financing in Slovakia. In March there was an an opening session, what is the outcome of it for the Catholic church? “Minister has officially opened the discussion about the new model of church financing. It’s an important and serious issue for the Catholic church, we respect this decision, and we are also aware that Slovak republic signed the Basic agreement with the Holy See in 2000 that anticipates signing of another partial agreement regarding church financing. Situation of the Catholic church is therefore influenced by this commitment, but we are open for discussions. We wish for a more suitable model of financing as well but we would like it to be a model that won’t cause damage to any religious community in Slovakia”.One of the options is establishment of compulsory church tax. What about the attitude of the Catholic church in Slovakia in regard to this issue?“Experiences from other european countries have shown that compulsory tax is a delicate matter. Maybe it’s suitable for the states that have had this form of financial support of the Church for a long time. In our country where people take the issue of the church tax more negatively, we believe that compulsory tax paid on the base of the religious profession of a person, is not very suitable. But we are still open for a discussion. The Bishops’conference of Slovakia established special comission 5 years ago to deal with questions regarding possible models of church financing, so we have some knowledge about this. But the government’s point of view is important as well, because final decision can only come out of mutual dialog”.One of the results of the first meeting with the minister of culture was a proposal to establish a commission with representatives of all churches as well as Slovak government. What will be the role of the Catholic church in it and what are the expectations?“We have recently been invited to nominate members for this commission. The Catholic church will have 4 posts and at our last bishops’plenary session in March we decided that one of the posts should by taken by the representative of the Greek catholic church, one post by the representative of religious orders and two members will be nominated by the Roman catholic church. The fact is that there will be nominees from all the churches and religious communities in Slovakia, so the commission will have many members and the process will be very challenging and long”.At the last plenary in March you were nominated a delegate of the Bishops’conference of Slovakia for the next year’s Synod of bishops about new evangelisation. How do you cope with responsibility associated with such task and how do you see the need of new evangelisation in slovak society?“The nomination has been an honour for me, I’m grateful for the trust. I’m very glad that the Holy Father Benedict XVI. has come with such an excellent idea after having established a special Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. It shows us how important the current situation in the world is for the pope who wants to inspire people in all ways. New evangelization doesn’t depend so much on the central structure of the Church and meetings of bishops. It essencially depends on the zeal of every single bishop, priest and layman. New evangelization means to renew deep inside of ourselves the relationship with God, Jesus Christ, the Gospel, christian values. It can be more difficult with people who have been baptised but have never been raised in faith. They have little knowledge about it and along with liberal attitude of our society it’s very difficult to overcome the obstacles of prejudices against Christianism. We should beg for God’s help and the apostolic spirit to do everything possible to change their hearts. It’s a great challenge and invitation for the whole Church”.Preparation for the celebration of the Holy Year of st. Cyril and Methodius 2013 in Slovakia can also be considered as a way of new evangelization.“It’s very interesting and joyful for us that the preparation for the Synod of bishops coincides with celebration of the 1150th anniversary of arrival of the two saints to Great Moravia. We have been trying to prepare spiritually – the pilgrimage of the relics of St. Cyril started on 1 January this year and believers in all dioceses of the country will have an opportunity to venerate them. It’s a chance to connect spiritually with both saints who have brought the Christian faith to us and to appreciate their message. It’s an invitation for us to realize what is the sense of new evangelization and how each of us can become a part of it. The Bishops’ conference of Slovakia has sent an invitation to the Holy Father to come and visit our country and we are pleased that it’s been accompanied by the official invitation from the president of Slovak republic Ivan Gasparovic. We’ve suggested the visit could take place in 2012 at the beginning of the Holy year but the arrival of Benedict XVI. has not been officially confirmed by the Holy See yet. We are full of hope and desire and we pray to the Lord that he may grant the spiritual strength and good health to the Holy Father so that he could come and visit our country”.