In just the last three years, the churches received over a billion kunas.
In answer to a parliamentary question sent by Member of Parliament and liberal GLAS party president Anka Mrak-Taritaš, the government has published data on funding of religious communities in the Republic of Croatia from the state budget, reports Index.hr on December 8, 2017.
Between 2014 and 2016, in accordance with the treaties signed with various churches, the religious communities received a total of 1.123 billion kunas from the state budget, of which the Catholic Church received the highest amount – 1.066 billion kunas. The Serbian Orthodox Church received 27.7 million kunas and the Islamic Community 8.43 million kunas. The rest of the money was paid to bank accounts of 13 smaller religious communities.
The Government of the Republic of Croatia has concluded eight treaties on issues of mutual interest with 19 different religious communities. The religious communities receive funds from the state budget for the activities which the churches implement in the educational, social, health and cultural fields.
The money which is paid from the state budget includes the costs of financing of priests and other religious officials, pastoral activities and care, the costs of constructing and maintaining churches, church buildings and religious centres which are not included in the list of protected cultural monuments, and the contributions to the charitable activities of religious communities.
In its reply, the Government noted that the Croatian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, with the consent of the Holy See, late last year gave a one-off contribution to overcoming the current financial situation in the Republic of Croatia and covered part of the cost of pupil transportation services in the amount of 10 million kunas.
The table with all the data for the last three years is below. The listed churches are:
Catholic Church
Serbian Orthodox Church
Islamic Community
Evangelical Church
Reformed Christian Calvinist Church
Pentecostal Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Croatian Old Catholic Church
Macedonian Orthodox Church
Coordination of Jewish Communities
Jewish Religious Community Bet Israel
Baptist Church Union
Christian Adventist Church
Full Gospel Church
Protestant Reformed Christian Church
Union of “Word of Life” Church
