The Catholic Church in Croatia has agreed to a 10% reduction in its funding from the state budget this year, and thus waived HRK 30 million (€4 million) in the total outlay, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Tuesday.

The daily recalls that the under the 1998 Treaty between the Republic of Croatia and the Holy See on economic issues, every year, approximately 300 million kuna is disbursed to the Catholic Church in the country.

Thus, the Church has waived about 30 million kuna this year due to the corona crisis, the daily said adding that the information was confirmed by a source from the Church.

The source was quoted as saying that on their own accord they waived that amount of money in favour of the country’s economy.

The same source was quoted as saying that the Church could not turn a blind eye to the current situation the economy is, and recalled that during the previous economic crisis it also waived about 160 million kuna in four years.

The Jutarnji List explains that from 2009 to 2012, the Croatian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (HBK) had waived 40 million each year, that is HRK 162 million in the aggregate.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)