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1 Dalibor Renić SJ1 Attitudes Towards the Science-Religion Relations In Dalibor Renić S.J.1 Attitudes Towards the Science-Religion Relations in the Catholic Church in Croatia Published: Renić, Dalibor, “Attitudes Towards Science-Religion Relations in the Catholic Church in Croatia,” in Science and Christian Faith in Post-Cold War Europe: A Comparative Analysis 25 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, eds. Giandomenico Boffi and Marijan Sunjić (Vatican City: Lateran University Press, 2015), 37-52. The intention of this article is to offer a synthesis and a comment on the attitudes of the Catholics in Croatia in regard to the recent debates on the relationship between faith and science, and on the so–called New Atheism, which alleges to be founded on scientific arguments. When I say Catholics in Croatia, that includes both the positions of the bishops and clergy, and the attitudes of the laity. In order to ensure that my opinions are not simply personal or arbitrary, I chose to support them by my own analysis of the contents of the leading Catholic weekly paper in Croatia called Glas Koncila (Voice of the Council). The focus of the analysis was precisely how that paper reacted, and reported on the aforementioned debates on faith, science, and atheism during the peak years of the New Atheism controversy. In that sense, this article is also a case study. 1. Catholic Church in Croatia According to the last official census the population of Croatia was 4,284,889 (2011). By religious affiliation, the population was 84,28% Catholic; 4,44% Orthodox; 1,47% Muslim; 0,34% Protestant; 3,81% Atheist; 0,76% Agnostic. Although an extensive campaign was led prior to the census by secularist associations in order to persuade the citizens to “come out” as religiously non–affiliated, or at least not to declare their religion, very few citizens of Croatia (2,17%) did not disclose their religion, less than at previous census in 2001 (2,95%). According to the Eurobarometer Poll 2010, 69% of those surveyed in Croatia responded "I believe there is a God," 22% responded "I believe there is some sort of spirit or life force," and 7% said "I don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force."2 In a 2009 Gallup poll, 70% answered yes to the question "Is religion an important part of your 1 Dalibor Renić S.J., PhD, is a Senior Lecturer of Philosophy at the Philosophical Faculty of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb. E–mail: [email protected]. 2 See European Commission, "Special Eurobarometer: Biotechnology,” 2010 (PDF), p. 381, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_en.pdf (retrieved November 26, 2014). 1 daily life?"3 Croatia belongs to the group of the European countries with a high degree of religious affiliation, and a relatively high degree of religiosity. Regarding the latter point we must say, however, that most statistics show that (only) one fifth of the Catholics in Croatia regularly frequent Sunday liturgy. There is a notable discrepancy between the traditional religious affiliation and the religious practice. What are the tendencies regarding the religious situation in Croatia? In comparison to the 2001 census, the percentage of Catholics dropped from 87,97% to 86,28% till 2011. The percentage of atheists increased in the same period from 2,22% to 3,81%. The number of Protestants and Muslims also increased, while the number of the Orthodox decreased. That change can be seen as a consequence of the general tendencies in demographics, secularization, and post–secularization of the European societies. We should mention—and the previous figures confirm it—that the trend of secularization is somewhat belated and apparently slower in Croatia, and one can also detect signs of the opposite leanings. The demographical decline is, however, undeniable, severe, and unrelenting. 2. Intellectual Life of the Church in Croatia The Catholic Church in Croatia has had a long, established, and lively intellectual culture, also during the isolation and harassment by the Communist dictatorship, when the Catholic theological and philosophical faculties, as well as high schools, were excluded from the public educational system. Since the early 1970’s, however, many clergy were allowed to study abroad. Thus they were able to appropriate and disseminate contemporary theological and philosophical ideas in their homeland, including the revival of the dialogue between theology and science. Today there are four Catholic faculties of theology in Croatia (all of them members of their local state universities), one philosophical faculty, three minor theological institutes, twelve Catholic high schools, and four elementary schools. Croatian Catholic University was founded in Zagreb in 2010. Catholic dioceses and orders in Croatia (and among the Croats in the neighbouring countries) send a considerable number of their clergy abroad for their post–graduate studies. Traditional places are—in order of recurrence—the pontifical universities in Rome, German speaking countries, and sometimes French speaking countries. It is only a recent phenomenon that some priests obtain their post–graduate degrees from English speaking countries. 3 See "Gallup Global Reports," http://www.gallup.com/poll/128210/gallup-global-reports.aspX (retrieved October 7, 2013). 2 There are numerous active Catholic publishing houses, several academic periodicals in the field of theology, spirituality, and philosophy, many popular monthly magazines, and established web–portals. Croatian Catholic Radio has been broadcasting at the national level since 1997 and dedicates notable spaces to intellectual themes. Some smaller radio stations have local concessions. There is no fully active Catholic television yet. It is interesting to notice that seven of the current Catholic bishops in Croatia worked as theology lecturers before assuming the episcopal office, six were parish priests, three canon lawyers, one was psychologist, and one is still a philosophy professor.4 There were more ex– parish priests among the bishops in the previous decades. That will partially explain the conspicuous priority the Croatian episcopate gives to the social and political issues in the public square. Organized Catholic lay activism in public life was forbidden and politically persecuted during the Communist period in Croatia. Hence the strongly clerical Church had to invest a lot of energy to recover the institutions and platforms for lay activism during the 1990’s, and that process is still going on. In the meanwhile, of course, the situation has improved. More and more lay persons who got their degrees at Catholic faculties, as well as those who were formed through religious education at school and various Catholic associations, promote Christian world–view in an organized way. That fact is especially relevant for the dialogue between faith and science. 3. Glas Koncila Glas Koncila (Voice of the Council) is the largest by circulation and the most influential Catholic paper in Croatia. It has been weekly published by the Archdiocese of Zagreb since 1962. Its first goal was to inform the faithful about the dynamics and the conclusions of the Second Vatican Council, but it soon exceeded that purpose. Before the democratization in 1990 it was the only paper in Croatia that was not under the total control of the Communist Party. Naturally, it has lost some of the importance it had as the oppositional paper, but it is still a relevant factor in the media milieu. As they say for themselves, Glas Koncila today “informs about the events in the Croatian–speaking parts of the Church and in the universal Church, and observes other important events from a Christian standpoint, especially in the light of ethics, Christian morals, and Catholic social teaching. … It represents faithfully the 4 See Croatian Bishops’ Conference, “Members,” http://www.hbk.hr/?type=lista&ID=2 (accessed November 26, 2014). 3 official positions of the Catholic Church among the Croats and non–offically comments on current issues in the ecclesiastical, national, and public life with an ecclesiastical and historical inspiration.”5 When reading Glas Koncila one will find shorter versions of the official messages of the Croatian Catholic bishops, fairly detailed information about the activities of the Holy See, three editorials, lots of news about religious events in Croatia, scriptural meditations, letters of the readers, books and arts reviews, etc. Its editorials illustrate that Glas Koncila is primarily interested in social issues (politics, media, history, family, education, bioethics). It paid, nevertheless, a particular attention to the intellectual debates with atheism in the Communist period, and still keeps informing the faithful about the global and local intellectual trends. The intellectual side of the Weekly manifests through its excellent choice of interviews with specialists from different areas, as well as through series of popularly written essays on current issues. Glas Koncila represents well the positions of the bishops and the interests of the Catholic clergy. Being written mostly by lay people, it is a good illustration about the questions and the life of the laity too. Thus it offers a good general picture about the state of the mind of the Catholics in Croatia, which is the reason why I chose it for my purpose in this paper. We must keep in mind, though, that Glas Koncila avoids intra–catholic controversies. It avoids debates and deals only indirectly with the plurality of opinions in the Church in Croatia. Being a semi–official publication of the bishops, it refrains from the criticism of their official positions. 4. Content Analysis In my analysis of the content of Glas Koncila I was focused on the topics of the relationship between faith, reason, and natural science. It was not always easy to disentangle these themes from the ethical and political debates on bioethics and education, for example, or from the purely descriptive presentations of the developments in medicine, pharmaceutics, agriculture, ecology. My rule of thumb was to follow which position Glas Koncila gives to the science and how it evaluates the words like “science,” “scientist,” “reason,” especially in the context of the recent debates.
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