CROATIA AND VATICAN SIGN ECONOMIC AGREEMENT

( Editorial: --> 7226 ) ZAGREB, Oct 9 (Hina) - Croatia and the Vatican on Friday signed an economic agreement which, together with the previous three signed back in 1996, rounds up the concordat legal frame for the work of the Catholic Church in Croatia. The fourth agreement was signed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Croatia, Giulio Einaudi, and chairman of the Croatian State Commission for Relations with Religious Communities, Jure Radic, in Zagreb on Friday. After several months of negotiations, the agreement resolves issues of returning Church property that had been confiscated during the times of communism, and the financing of the public and community work of the Church. "I am glad to stress that this agreement is an honour for Croatia, and the Holy See accepts it with great pleasure," Monsignor Einaudi said after signing the agreement. Together with the three previously signed agreements, he stressed, this agreement is "a true concordat on the legal, pastoral, educational and economic issues in the relations between the State and Church in Croatia". Radic said the signing of the agreement "consolidates and fully legally establishes the historic development of good relations between the Holy See and Croatia." With this signature, "Croatia wants to clearly state that it wishes to correct the injustices of former times, while avoiding new ones," Radic stressed. The Archbishop of Zagreb, Monsignor Josip Bozanic, said all four agreements between Croatia and the Vatican were based on three basic principles "religious freedom, differences between the State and Church, and the necessity of cooperation between these two institutions to promote the well-being of the people and society as a whole". The text of the agreement has not been made available to reporters, but it apparently stipulates the return of Church property confiscated during communism in three ways: the first is to pay in kind where possible, the second is to provide substitute facilities, and the third is financial compensation for property which cannot be returned to the Church in the first two ways for objective reasons. The Church is of the stance that everything taken away must be returned, but it does not want to have a privilege over those whose property had also been taken away during the Yugoslav communist rule, Monsignor Bozanic said. The agreement also stipulates that a certain amount of resources be set aside from the government budget for the Church. "For this part of the agreement, we did not follow European countries which have church tax (Germany and Austria), nor those where citizens can donate a small amount from their taxes for the needs of the Church (Italy or Spain), but rather, we followed the example of Scandinavian countries where the state gives a certain amount of assistance to registered religious communities, in accordance with the number of their members," Archbishop Bozanic said. Present at the signing was also Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa. (hina) lml 091809 MET oct 98