Traditions and Prospects of Remuneration of Clergymen in Czechoslovakia in the Period 1918–1950 and in the Present Slovak Republic
Traditions and Prospects of Remuneration of Clergymen in Czechoslovakia in the Period 1918–1950 and in the Present Slovak Republic

Summary/Abstract: Historical and legal examination of financial provision for the clergy from traditional and state-recognized churches and religious societies in Slovakia brings with it not only the historical dimension of its descriptive and analytical significance, but provides a specific social-security law and labour law basis for the current material status of the clergy, which is in many cases at an undignified and sociallydeprived level due to current legislation. Substantive law, even after 28 years since the political regime change in November 1989, comes from the time of real socialism, and despite a number of cosmetic changes the several times amended Act from 1949 (!) has not escaped the framework of state supervision and paternalism, as well as social levelling of Churches, at least in the case of clerical remuneration. The aim of this study was to use short, recapitulating sketches to focus historical-legal attention on the employment basis of remuneration regulation for the clergy (i.e. its basis in the form of state support called “congruence”) in different constitutional phases of the Czechoslovak Republic in two diametrically-opposed political regimes: firstly the democratic 1st Czechoslovak Republic and then the post-war People’s Czechoslovak Republic, led and controlled by the Communists after their take-over in 1948. In conclusion, we analyse the current legal regulation of clerical remuneration in the Slovak Republic as one of the legal successors of the defunct Czechoslovak Federal Republic, and we describe the current major problems that we see as rooted in past legislation.

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