Source: http://ebook2.worldlibrary.net/articles/eng/Concordat
Timestamp: 2020-08-05 17:16:38
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Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 12', 'art. 20', 'art. 9', 'art. 7', 'art. 13', 'art. 8']

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Title: Concordat
Subject: Catholic University of Portugal, Holy See, Pietro Gasparri, Foreign relations of the Holy See, Holy See–Poland relations
Collection: Foreign Relations of the Holy See, History of Roman Catholicism, History of the Papacy, Religion and Politics, Treaties of the Holy See
A concordat is an agreement or treaty between the Holy See of the Catholic Church and a sovereign state that deals with the recognition and privileges of the Catholic Church in a particular country and with secular matters that impact on church interests, such as taxation as well as the right of a state to influence the selection of bishops within its territory..
Although for a time after the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965, the term 'concordat' was dropped, it reappeared with the Polish Concordat of 1993 and the Portuguese Concordat of 2004. A different model of relations between the Vatican and various states is still evolving (see e.g. Petkoff 2007) in the wake of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis humanae.
Church-State dichotomy 1
Examples of concordats 2
Church-State dichotomy
From a Church-State perspective, the contentions regarding Concordats involves two perspectives.
From a Catholic church perspective, the Church has the moral and theological right to enter into diplomatic relations with states in order to reach agreements regarding the care of its members residing there. This is the concept of Libertas ecclesiae (freedom of the Church).
concordats may not be "the same as treaties" because they are entered into by an entity that is BOTH religious and political in nature, viz., the Catholic Church, with exception to states which are expressedly atheist or are identified as choosing anti-religious views, whereas any other treaty is regularly between two sovereign entities on a horizontal level, i.e., purely political in nature,[1] and
depending on the negotiations agreed upon in the concordat, some religious groups face the threat of being marginalized. For example, in Spain, although the Constitution guarantees religious freedom (theoretically), yet in practice, the Church is mentioned by name and holds a pre-eminent position among other religious groups.[2] In recent years, debate has occurred regarding whether the Spanish government should maintain a concordat with the Vatican.[3]
Examples of concordats
Some concordats guarantee the Catholic Church the tax-exempt status of a charity, being by fact the largest charitable institution in the world, either stating this explicitly, as in Brazil (2008, Article 15)[4] and Italy (1984, Article 7.3),[5] or phrasing it indirectly, as in Portugal (2004, art. 12).[6]
When the political will is present, such concordat privileges can be extended by domestic legislation. In 1992 the tax exemption granted the Church by the Italian concordat was interpreted by a law which permits the Catholic Church to avoid paying 90% of what it owes to the state for its commercial activities.[7] Thus, a small shrine within the walls of a cinema, holiday resort, shop, restaurant or hotel is sufficient to confer religious exemption.[8] In June 2007 Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Competition announced an investigation of this. Then, in August, the deputy finance minister in Romano Prodi’s fragile center-left coalition said the issue needed to be tackled in the next year's budget.[9] However, after that nothing more about this was heard from the Barroso Commission and a few months later the Prodi government fell.
The Slovak concordat (2000, art. 20.2) ensures that church offertories are "not subject to taxation or to the requirement of public accountability".[10] This is also the case in Côte d'Ivoire, where far larger sums are involved. The Basilica at Yamoussoukro, is estimated to have cost $300 million, and the additional running expenses for what is the largest church in the world are also shielded from scrutiny by the 1992 concordat concluded with the Ivorian dictator. Houphouët-Boigny claimed that these funds came from his private fortune. A Vatican official is reported to have called the agreement over the foundation set up to administer these funds "a delicate matter".[11]
Nevertheless, this concordat ensures that the foundation’s income and assets remain untaxed (art. 9.1), it holds these funds beyond the reach of both criminal and civil law (art. 7.1), it permits this money to be sent out of the country (art. 13.2) and it keeps all the foundation’s documents "inviolable", in other words, secret (art. 8).[12]
The following is a sortable list of the concordats and other bilateral agreements concluded by the Holy See.
1610 Concordat of Mi'kmaw between Pope Paul V and Grand Chief Membertou of Grand Council of Mi'kmaw Nation 1610[13]
1813 Concordat of Fontainebleau between Pope Pius VII and King Napoléon of France 25 Jan. 1813
1851 Concordat[14] between the Holy See and Spain 16 Mar 1851 11 May 1851
1914 Concordat[15] between the Holy See and Serbia 24 June 1914 20 March 1915 [16]
1922 Concordat between the Holy See and Latvia 30 May 1922 3 Nov 1922
1925 Concordat between the Holy See and Poland 10 Feb 1925 2 Jul 1925
1927 Concordat[17] between the Holy See and Romania 10 May 1927
1929 Lateran Treaty[18] between the Holy See and Italy 11 Feb 1929 7 Jun 1929
1953 Concordat[19] between the Holy See and Spain 27 Aug 1953 27 Oct 1953
1996 Agreements between the Holy See and Croatia 18 Dec 1996[20][21][22] 11[20][21] and 25 Feb 1997[22]
1997 Agreement between the Holy See and Hungary 20 June 1997[23] 3 April 1998
1997 Legal Personality Agreement[24] between the Holy See the State of Israel 10 Nov 1977
1998 Agreement between the Holy See and Croatia 9 Oct 1998[25] 30 Dec 1998[25]
2004 Treaty between the Holy See and Slovakia 13 May 2004 9 Jul 2004[26]
2006 Basic Agreement between the Holy See and Bosnia and Herzegovina 19 Apr 2006 25 Oct 2007
2015 Comprehensive agreement between the Holy See and State of Palestine 26 Jun 2015
^ Maria Elena Olmos Ortega, "Los Acuerdos con la Santa Sede: Instrumentos Garantes de la Libertad Religiosa," in Maria del Mar Martin, Mercedes Salido, Jose Maria Vazquez Garcia-Penuela, eds., Iglesia Catolica y Relaciones Internacionales: Actas del III Simposio Internacional de Derecho Concordatorio (Granada: Editorial Comares, 2008), 489-502.
^ English translation of 2008 Brazilian concordat
^ English translation of 1984 Italian concordat
^ English translation of 2004 Portuguese concordat
^ "La Ue pronta a processare gli sconti Ici alla Chiesa" ("Property tax relief for the Church: EU takes Italy to court"), Curzio Maltese, La Repubblica, 25 June 2007.
^ Church ready to forgo tax breaks, John Hooper, Guardian, 28 August 2007.
^ ASC&kb_id=1222 English translation of 2000 Slovak concordat
^ English translation of 1992 Ivorian concordat
^ http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/jwelcher/MIK%2010%20Class%20Notes/1_concordat.pdf
^ Concordat of 1851, (English)
^ Concordat between the Holy See and the Realm of Serbia in 1914 (Italian)
^ Le Concordat de la Serbie avec le Saint-Siège (juin 1914-mars 1915)
^ THE HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL BACKGROUND OF THE 1927 CONCORDAT BETWEEN THE VATICAN AND ROMANIA
^ For the text of the Lateran Treaty see
^ Concordat of 1953, (English)
^ a b Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o suradnji na području odgoja i kulture (Croatian)
^ a b Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o dušobrižništvu katoličkih vjernika, pripadnika oružanih snaga i redarstvenih službi Republike Hrvatske (Croatian)
^ a b Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o pravnim pitanjima (Croatian)
^ Concordat on finance (1997)
^ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legal Personality Agreement
^ a b Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o gospodarskim pitanjima (Croatian)
^ Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. Monitoring law and practice in Slovakia by Janka Debreceniova, Zuzana Ocenasova. p. 81
Petkoff, Peter (2007). "Legal perspectives and religious perspectives of religious rights under international law in the Vatican Concordats (1963-2004)." Law and Justice: the Christian law review, 158, p. 30- online (payment may be required).
WorldHeritage list cleanup from January 2012
Portugal, Lisbon, Braga, Concordat, Viseu
Poland, Holy See, Vatican City, Bucharest, Pope John Paul II