RELIGION IN ECONOMIC AND LEGAL RELATIONS - THIRTY YEARS SINCE THE FALL OF COMMUNISM

Abstract

The relationship between the State and religion, expressed primarily by its legal framework, is one of the most important indicators of the maturity of a democratic State. Religious freedom was one of the slogans chanted in the squares of communist countries in the breakthrough year of 1989. The paper concentrates on the region of Central Europe, analyzing in particular the situation in Czechoslovakia and in the Slovak Republic. The series of fundamental legal regulations began almost immediately after the fall of communism by the abolition of so-called church crimes and the abolition of state supervision of churches. Churches and religious societies have gradually adapted to democratic conditions, and there has been a partial separation of churches from the State. Subsequently, the major themes of new church policies in the countries under review were: the question of church funding  related to the return of previously nationalized church property, the recognition of the legal personality of churches by the state, and the development of contractual relations between states and churches and religious societies. The issue of restitution of church property has become a key for the development of church autonomy and the financing of its activities, including the restoration of sacral cultural monuments. Recognition of churches and religious societies was accompanied by discussions on historical and traditional churches, religious-demographic situations and new religious movements. These processes are accompanied by a social discussion of the secular nature of the State and the practical expression of this definition. It is the intersection of the institutional principle of the separation of State and church and the religious neutrality of the State.