Concordat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A concordat usually refers to an agreement between the Apostolic See and a government of a certain country on religious matters, although it is also used in relation to some other agreements in internal United Kingdom and others counties' politics.
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[edit] Papal concordat
This often included both recognition and privileges for the Catholic Church in a particular country. Privileges might include exemptions from certain legal matters and processes, and issues 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.
The Vatican has been particularly vocal on issues of abortion in Ireland and Portugal, and in attempting to ensure references to Christianity in the prospective EU constitution. Less high profile are agreements concerning taxation and partial state funding of Catholic owned institutions such as orphanages, homes for the elderly and hospices for those suffering from AIDS.
A different model of relations between the Vatican and various states is still evolving in the wake of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae.
[edit] United Kingdom
The term is also used for agreements setting out the framework for co-operation between United Kingdom government departments and the Scottish Government and the Cabinet of the National Assembly for Wales: for examples see DEFRA. In other jurisdictions such as Australia and the United States, the term Memorandum of Understanding, often just MOU, is more prevalent.
[edit] List of concordats
- Concordat of Worms (1122) between Pope Calixtus II and Holy Roman Emperor Henry V
- Concordat of Bologna (1516) between King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X
- Concordat of 1753 with Spain
- Concordat of 1801 between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon
- Concordat of Fontainebleau (1813) between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon
- Concordat of 5 June 1817, with Bavaria
- Concordat of 11 June 1817, with France
- Concordat of 1847 (3 August) with Russia
- Concordat of 1851 (16 March) with Spain
- Concordat of 1855 between Pope Pius IX and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph
- Concordat of 1882 (23 December) with Russia
- Concordat of 1886 (23 June) with Portugal
- Concordat of 1925 (10 February) between the Holy See and the Second Polish Republic
- Lateran treaty (11 February 1929) between Italy and Pope Pius XI, being composed of a Treaty formally defining the Vatican City and its international sovereign status and of the Concordat of 1929 concerning the Catholic Church in Italy[1]
- Concordat of 1933 (5 June) between the Holy See and Austria
- Reichskonkordat (20 July 1933) between the Holy See and the Third Reich
- Concordat of 1940 (7 May) with the Portuguese government under Antonio de Oliveira Salazar
- Concordat of 1953 (27 August) with Francisco Franco's Spain
- Four Agreements of 1979 (3 January) between the Holy See and Spain
- Concordat of 1984 (18 February) between the Holy See and the Republic of Italy, or Villa Madama Agreement
- Concordat of 1993 (28 July) between the Holy See and Poland
- Treaty of 2004 (March) between the Holy See and Slovakia
- Concordat of 2004 (18 May) between the Holy See and Portugal
- Concordat of 2008 (13 Nov) between the Holy See and Brazil
- Several Concordats with individual Laender (also spelled Länder; Land being its singular form) of the German Federal Republic since the mid-1960s one example of which is the Concordat of 2009.
[edit] Criticism
Secularists criticise concordats as being an infringement of human rights.
President Luiz Inácio da Silva of Brazil did not sign a concordat during the Pope Benedict XVI visit to Brazil in 2007, as the pontiff hoped. The principle of separation of church and state was the claimed reason for disagreement between the parts. Nevertheless, in the following year, president Luiz Inácio da Silva signed it. According to its critics, the Brazilian concordat gives important privileges to the Catholic Church and the media is boycotting the matter. The treaty is now pending ratification in the Congress as the Catholic Church is rushing the Congress into approval.
Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world in absolute terms (there are many countries with higher percentages of Catholics), but many Brazilians follow other creeds and are only nominally Catholic.[2]
