BUDEN: No one has been manipulating anyone here, both sides pursue their own concrete interests. The Church wants social privileges and material benefits, which it has received from the HDZ, and the HDZ needed political support which the Church offered. It is a form of an open social and political partnership, which has nothing to do with democracy, but since neither side has been interested in democracy, their cooperation is not contradictory.
This love relationship, however, is still quite active?
With the arrival of Tudjman, the Church submitted bills for all the favors it had been doing to the Croatian independence movement. Its anti-communism did not have a democratic character, which makes it no different from the rest of the Croatian nationalism.
How do you explain the fact that the Church supports individuals charged with the worst possible violations of law and morality, war crimes?
What does it mean to take side of those who prevent the law from trying potential murderers, or punishing proven criminals? What does it mean when bishops urge the government to "pay attention to the order of events, the cause and the effect, when passing judgments of certain acts"? Almost every crime, including the war crimes committed by the Croatian patriots, can have its mitigating circumstances, which can reduce guilt, and therefore punishment. But a crime remains a crime, and it has to be punished in the court of law. It has nothing to do with the government or the bishops. Anyone with a different opinion is not a democrat, he is not a Lord's shepherd either, but a devil's advocate.
What consequences can such an engagement have for the Church in Croatia?
The Croatian Catholic Church is morally about to expire. It is not important in which form it will outlive its symbolic death. It has been wasting its future, and no one is to be blamed for that, least of all Communism. And as for God, he would be an atheist here in Croatia.
How come that within the Church or society in general, it is not possible to gather an anti-criminal alliance such as the one at the recent rally in Split?
The fact that there is no mass of people willing to oppose the raging mob that howls "We are all Norac!" is a logical consequence of the ten years long Croatian political opportunism. No one on the Croatian political scene has openly and regardless of consequences opposed the so-called majority political opinion. No one has dared to build his or hers political identity on the minority opinion, which is not necessarily wrong just because it is not prevailing. No one has ever questioned the ideological and political basis of the Croatian nationalism, which has always been non-democratic. Croatian politicians are either worshippers of the nationalistic state-building, or opportunistic pragmatists. To expect from an opportunist, such as Racan, to politically oppose the mob in Split is a pure illusion. We cannot even imagine that, because it is not enough to shout "No, not all of us are Norac!", but also to shout the name of an "anti-Norac", and such a person does not exist in Croatia.
How important is the political influence to the Church today in Croatia?
This is a good moment to mention the classic Marxist criticism of religion, because it seems to be more appropriate than ever before. The issue is not only that there is no God, that the world of religious belief is simply false, that it is an illusory compensation for the earthly misery. Marxism is not satisfied with that rationalistic, psychological explanation. It insists on the social character of religion. People believe in God and set up religions and religious institutions to satisfy certain social needs. In other words, in order to understand the phenomenon of faith in God, we must understand the social function of religious institutions, first of all of the Church. The main issue is not the character of the Church, the relation of the Church towards God, but the relation of the Church towards the society, the role of the Church in the concrete social and political reality.
All those people who have been mocking this criticism of religion since the fall of communism should stop smiling. The Marxist criticism of religion is completely right, at least here in Croatia. Its correctness, which the communist system with its ideology and repression did not prove, is today proved by the Church itself, especially the Croatian Catholic Church. This religious institution feels no need to establish any relation towards God, towards the values of faith. Instead, it insists on a social and political role it has been playing in Croatia today. In order to accomplish their political aims, the Church is ready to violate the most elementary moral principles, which are supposed to be in its foundations.