Slovakia

 Is the Vatican trying to turn Slovakia into a model state of ultra-orthodox Catholicism? The audacious “conscience concordat” is unprecedented, as is the remarkable “five-year plan” for Catholicising the whole of Slovak society. Recently the Slovak government minister who questioned state subsidies to religious bodies ― €37.19 million in 2009 ― was scolded by the Catholic bishops for raising the issue without consulting them first.

Reversing the historical direction, John Paul II hoped that, with the help of a Catholicised Slovakia, Europe would be “[re]-evangelised from the east”. In line with this, the strategic European committee in charge of women's rights and equality is presently headed by the Slovak Anna Zaborska, who has strong personal and political ties to the Vatican.
 

	Evangelisation and the “conscience concordat”
	• Vatican's “morality pact” still pending • Why Slovakia? • Father Hlinka’s secret mission (1919) • Papal photo-op for the next concordat (2003) • Fall of the Slovak Government over the concordat (2006)
	Slovak commentary
	• Rights and religious groups against conscience concordat • Threat to women's reproductive health freedom • Slovak teacher speaks out on religious education  • New Slovak law rehabilitates wartime regime • Timely eviction of the National Memory Institute
	Texts of Slovak concordats and other Church-state documents
	• Modus Vivendi with Czechoslovakia (1928) • Birthday greetings for Hitler (19 April 1940) • RC clergy's Declaration of loyalty to the Fascists (1940) • Basic Concordat (2000) • Precedence Clause of the Slovak Constitution (2001)  • Concordat on the armed forces (2002)  • Concordat on Catholic education (2004)  • Draft of conscience concordat (2004)
	Pastorisation and Evangelisation Plan of the Catholic Church in Slovakia for 2001-2006
	This is an audacious five-year plan by the Slovak bishops for Catholicising Slovakia. Among the recommendations is saturation by Church media (1.6.3j), and indeed from 23 January 2007 the bandwidth of the BBC World Service was turned over to the Catholic station, Rádio Lumen.