Dubrovnik Bishop Mate Uzinic told N1 that the Church cannot be a co-author of any law, let alone the Abortion Law. In an interview with N1, Uzinic said despite the Church being accused of being in conflict with science, the Catholic church was always on the side of science. Modern science, he claims, can thank Christianity for its existence.

“There were some sporadic things in the past which should not have ever happened, but these things cannot be attributed to the Church as a general rule,” Uzinic added.

When it comes to the Church meddling in state politics Uzinic confirmed that there are probably those Church members who would like to see the Church more engaged in Croatia’s politics, however, the way in which the Church wants to act is more through giving advice and through upbringing. In his opinion, it is this social sphere that Croatia now lacks the most and that there are some politicians who declare themselves as Catholics and believers, but they were not brought up well enough to be Catholics and politicians.

Uzinic answered the question why the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is such a big problem for them.

“It is because the Church concluded that the term the ‘gender’ as used in the Istanbul Convention is not based on natural gender, meaning the distinction of human beings between male and female. That’s actually the basic problem with the Convention. We believe that the Convention itself is not good and that it can be dangerous for the Croatian state and society and that it would have been better if it was not adopted at all,” Uzinic said. “Now that it is adopted, I wish I could say that we have made a mistake, that the Convention has indeed managed to resolve the issue of violence against women. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Women are still victims of violence and they are still being killed.”

Another controversial issue for the Church is the Abortion Law. Uzinic pointed out that the Church can neither be the author nor the co-author of the said Law. The Church cannot take part in any discussion concerning the Law. Their earlier position on this law is clear and that is: no one has the right to make compromises about someone else’s life.

“We can’t expect the state to write the laws according to our Catholic beliefs, but we demand that politicians, Catholics, to build their Catholic beliefs into laws.