Dubious Business Deals of the Catholic Church

AIM Zagreb, May 12, 2001

If someone asked him to list present investments of over 60 million German marks, the Croatian Minister of development and reconstruction Radimir Cacic would not have a hard time doing it With the exception of several major road construction projects, he could count them all on the finger tips of his one hand. One such investment worth some sixty odd million DM - a giddy sum as far as Croatia is concerned - concerns the building and reconstruction of 80 churches, an undertaking of the Catholic Church. Thus, amid the weary Croat economy caught at a standstill and the unemployment rate exceeding 20 per cent, the Church has turned out to be one of the biggest investors in the country, capable of building more and better than ever despite the prevailing poverty.

Mijo Gabric, the manager of the Zagreb archbishopric's Office of the Archiepiscopal Estate, says that at the moment, eleven sacral objects are under construction merely in Zagreb. That the Church seems to be spared the problems the rest of the Croatian society is confronted with can best be illustrated by the fact that in a single city ward in Zagreb, Zapresic, two churches are being built at the same time. Gabric claims the said enterprise is not costing much due to the willingness of the parishioners to help, the fact that the Church is not burdened by unnecessary administration, donations in construction materials and the relatively low architect fees. He says that, "up to the moment the church is finally roofed over", the price of a square meter of a given sacral object will amount to around 1.500 DM. The finalization of the whole undertaking, according to him, more often than not lasts up to twenty years. When compared to three to four thousand Deutch marks - the going rate for a square meter of a flat in an upscale quarter of Zagreb

• the sum, in fact, seems to be moderate. But, as always, the truth is not that simple.

All in all, the superficies of churches presently under construction in Croatia amounts to 300-700 square meters. If an average church numbers around 500 square meters, simple mathematics will lead us to a figure of 60 million DM. But, some church complexes, as for instance the one of the Queen of Peace in Makarska, include other edifices as well: there the church and the accompanying pastoral center cover an expanse of fascinating 1.700 square meters, far above the alleged average. If this single sacral object costs the Catholic Church around 2,5 million DM, those claiming that, at the moment, the Church is investing over 100 million DM for construction purposes are clearly not exaggerating. To say nothing of the fact that the list of construction sites submitted to the public by the manager of the Office of the Archiepiscopal Estate of the Zagreb archbishopric omits to mention certain monumental undertakings such as the building of the Carmelite nunnery: a covert operation carried out in utter silence over the past five years, taking place in a rather remote township called Levanjska Varos near the city of Djakovo.

This pompous edifice, a monument to spectacular architectural solutions, more fitting for a luxurious hotel for the rich than for a sanctuary for the strict Carmelite "beggar-order" as the nuns like to define it, covers over 3.800 square meters in itself. The huge grounds surrounding it, extending to a part of a nearby forest, stretch over an expanse of 4,5 hectares. When finished, the nunnery will house sixteen Carmelite sisters of thirty possibles. If and whenever the number of sisters exceeds thirty, this will be taken as a sign that a new nunnery is in order. For, whenever the number of Carmelite nuns residing in a convent exceeds thirty, the sisterhood splits in two. Each room in the convent, the so called cell, is fitted with a shower, central heating, and has access to a built-in balcony of its own. Everything within this enormous complex is devised so as to secure a secluded and self-reliant life stile for the nuns: starting with the huge kitchen and storeroom for provisions, workshops, laundry rooms, a restaurant and a library, to the internal and external sacristy and a chapel. As is the custom, enclosed within the massive convent walls in the very center of the edifice, a courtyard offers the nuns a chance to rest and spend some time in open air.

Neither the contractor nor anyone from the church hierarchy is willing to disclose the exact sum spent on this monumental object. Estimates range from (excessively low) 5 million DM up to fantastic 30 million DM. The cost of construction work undertaken is hard to determine due to numerous donations, sponsorships and unremunerated work such as, for instance, the one done by the 37th engineer and pontoon brigade of the Croatian army in preparing the construction site (!). Army sources claim the market-price of the work done amounts to 100.000 DM, but that none of it was ever cashed since the whole undertaking was a gift of the Croatian Army to the Catholic Church. Similarly, the 4,5 hectares large plot on which the Carmelite nunnery was built and the drawing up of the documentation for the entire project, were a gift of the Osijek-Baranja district authorities to the church worth additional 100.000 DM. Other state-owned enterprises such as those managing Croatian water resources, forestry, the electric-power system and petroleum industry (INA), have all made considerable donations - be it in the form of cash, free services or construction materials - amounting to, according to some estimates, not less than 100.000 DM each. Thus, it turns out that governmental institutions and state-owned firms have - merely in the case of the Carmelite nunnery, but one of the many sacral objects at the moment under construction in Croatia - put aside nearly a million DM. More to the point, the donations bestowed on the church in fact belong to the Croatian tax payers: whether settling their electricity bills or buying petrol, they have been squaring off accounts of an expenditure they themselves have never personally endorsed.

These days, convents and churches constitute but a portion of the diversified investments of the Catholic Church in Croatia. Of its other enterprises, such as those having to do with a number of "recreational and spiritual centers", pig and agricultural farms, the public knows very little. As is the case of the huge recreational center Emaus between Osijek and Valpovo, to be resolved before a court of law in a matter of days. The said complex stretching over 18 hectares of land is an achievement of a particularly ambitious local clergyman who has managed to expand a profitable business of his own on the side.

The Emaus is a vast swimming pool compound with an accompanying restaurant of its own and a number of corresponding recreational contents. The contractor, formally designated as the Djakovo branch of the well known humanitarian-aid organization Caritas, has failed to reimburse the firms involved a sum of approximately a million DM - a debt the Church is not able or, simply, not willing to meet. Interestingly, once again, some government-owned firms such as the state waterworks have, donating a half of the needed resources for the filtering of the water system in Emaus, in fact made a contribution amounting to 3,8 million DM. For all willing to give it some consideration, this represents but another example of the way the Catholic Church in Croatia goes about gaining its wealth.

Owing to the outbreak of yet another scandal involving a mass poisoning of 70 people caused by the consumption of trichinosis infected sausages in the Osijek region, it came to be known that the Catholic church had something to do with the whole affair. At the time, the public found out that the priest accused of owing the state nearly a million DM in regard with the construction of the Emaus center, had previously engaged himself in the foundation of a pig farm with the capacity of 1.500 (pig) heads. For a paltry of sum of 100.000 DM, the enterprising clergyman somehow managed to obtain the deeds pertaining to the buildings and grounds once belonging to the Osijek brewery, officially appraised at 2,4 million DM. Mortgaging the recreational Emaus center, the able priest then raised another two mortgage loans enabling him to start the wished pig farm and to entice its production.

In other words, in the past ten years, the Catholic Church thus proved to be an apt enterprise stripped of needless scruples in times of the original accumulation of riches in a newly constituted, capitalist social order. For many who have lost almost all during the period - from work posts and savings to their very homes - the only thing remaining are their faith. A costly privilege, as some would say.

DRAGO HEDL

(AIM)