engleski

Walking on the Edge - The Catholic Church in Croatia in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper is based on content analysis of the most visited Croatian portals in the period from April 2020 to December 2021, which deal with the attitude of the Catholic Church towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Croatia, the reactions of the Catholic Church and its representatives toward the official measures taken by the government and bodies set up to combat the epidemic have varied. The Croatian public is under the impression that official measures have been particularly lenient when it comes to the Church and religious gatherings. At the same time, while some priests strongly opposed the adoption of official measures, some publicly supported them. Such diverse reactions of the Church and the clergy have already been recognized in the literature as a potential double-edged sword in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We suggest that there is a visible lack of cooperation between the government and the Catholic Church that reflects the absence of the open dialogue, points to the populism and politicization of different social issues, which is detrimental for society as a whole and creates a fertile ground for the development of citizens' distrust. It also reflects the ongoing religious-secular dynamics in Croatia, which once more includes the same actors: political parties, different NGOs, religious and non- religious citizens, media, as well as the government, and the Catholic Church.

church ; church-state relations ; COVID-19

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