The non-governmental transparency watchdog Gong called on Monday for the financial records of the Catholic Church to be made public, in line with what is normally required from all other non-profit organisations.

The organisation said that by refusing to review a series of treaties signed with the Holy See in the 1990s, the Croatian government has missed the opportunity to raise the issue of the financing for the Catholic Church, which is entirely funded from the state budget.

“There is no precise data on Church financing which is funded from the state budget. According to figures provided by the government, the Church gets around 600 million kuna (€80.8 million) every year from the state budget, although no data for spending at the local level is available. When donations received from believers, and also allocations from abroad, are added in, the total amount is much higher, but not specified anywhere,” Gong.

Although the finance ministry keeps a registry of yearly financial reports released by non-profit organisations such as Gong itself, religious communities are not required to make financial plans or keep financing records, nor are they subject to any audits,” Gong said.

“These are obligations of all non-profit organisations, which should also apply to the Catholic Church and all other religious communities in Croatia,” Gong said.

They said that the Bishop of Dubrovnik, Mate Uzinic, who publishes financial reports for his diocese, serves as proof that there are some Church officials who support transparency.

Gong’s statement came after a motion filed by the liberal party Glas and the pensioners’ party HSU to review the contracts was defeated in parliament last week. 

The four separate agreements signed by the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) governments in 1996 and in 1998, obliged Croatia to include and fund Catholic chaplaincy in the military, and provide and fund Catholic religious education at all primary and secondary schools, including pay salaries for all religious teachers.

In addition, Croatian courts also must notify the Church before investigating any church officials for felonies. The agreements also treat the Church as a charity, all donations it receives are tax-free, and the government is required to pay a set sum per parish annually, in effect paying out salaries to all priests.

In addition to the 600 million kuna paid for parishes every year, around 250 million kuna is paid for religious teachers’ salaries, plus a variety of other costs, leading proponents of the review to cite a figure of 900 million kuna (€121 million) in annual costs that taxpayers pay for the costs of provisions set in the treaties.

This is more than the 2016 budgets of the ministries of foreign affairs and tourism combined.

However, no Croatian government has ever tried to revise the treaties. The issue is occasionally raised by centre-left and liberal parties, who say that apart from incurring high costs, the contracts signed do not treat the two signatories on equal footing, as they do not list any obligations for the Church.

(€1 = 7.42 kuna)

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