Concordat

A concordat (Template:IPA) is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,<ref name=Metz137>René Metz, What is Canon Law? (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 [1st Edition]), p. 137</ref> i.e. the recognition and privileges of the Catholic Church in a particular country and with secular matters that affect church interests.

According to P. W. Brown the use of the term "concordat" does not appear "until the pontificate of Pope Martin V (1413–1431) in a work by Nicholas de Cusa, entitled De Concordantia Catholica.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The first concordat dates from 1098, and from then to the beginning of the First World War the Holy See signed 74 concordats.<ref name=Metz137/> Due to the substantial remapping of Europe that took place after the war, new concordats with legal successor states were necessary.<ref name=Metz137/> The post–World War I era saw the greatest proliferation of concordats in history.<ref name=Metz137/>

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 mode of relations between the Vatican and various states is still evolving,<ref>See, for example, Petkoff 2007.</ref> often contentiously, in the wake of a growing secularism and religious pluralism in the western world.

Church teaching

The Catholic Church historically claimed not to be bound to one form of government over another, but was willing to work with any kind of government, so long as the rights of God and believers were maintained. Pius XI wrote in 1933:

Universally known is the fact that the Catholic Church is never bound to one form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God and of Christian consciences are safe. She does not find any difficulty in adapting herself to various civil institutions, be they monarchic or republican, aristocratic or democratic.<ref>Pius XI, Dilectissima Nobis 1933</ref>

Church–state dichotomy

Template:More citations needed From a church–state perspective, the contentions regarding concordats involves two perspectives.

From a Catholic 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).

From a non-Catholic perspective, concordats may pose certain concerns such as:

• 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 expressly 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,<ref>Robert A. Graham, "Introduction: Reflections on Vatican Diplomacy", in Kent and Pollard, eds., Papal Diplomacy, 1, 2</ref> and
• depending on the negotiations agreed upon in the concordat, non-Catholic religious groups face the threat of being marginalized. For example, in Spain, although the Constitution guarantees religious freedom, the Catholic Church is mentioned by name, and in practice holds a pre-eminent position among other religious groups.<ref>Andrea Bonime-Blanc, Spain's Transition to Democracy: The Politics of Constitution-making (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc., 1987), 104.</ref> In recent years, debate has occurred regarding whether the Spanish government should maintain a concordat with the Vatican.<ref>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.</ref>

Due to these concerns, the United States did not establish diplomatic ties to the Vatican until the Ronald Reagan administration in 1984; and, to this day, the United States does not have a concordat with the Vatican, despite the two having a mutual "compromise" in terms of relationship.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Examples of concordats

File:Gérard - Signature du Concordat entre la France et le Saint-Siège, le 15 juillet 1801.jpg

The Signing of the Concordat between France and the Holy See, 15 July 1801. Artist: François Gérard, (1770-1837). Musée National du Château de Versailles, Versailles

• The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly had taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Subsequent laws abolished Christian holidays.<ref name="georgetown2">Template:Cite web See drop-down essay on "Religion and Politics until the French Revolution"</ref> Many religious leaders had either gone into exile or been executed during the Reign of Terror. The Church gave up any claims to lands confiscated after 1790, but secured the right to public worship, subject to any public safety concerns on the part of the local prefect. Napoleon was able to pacify French Catholics, while limiting the papacy's influence in France. While the concordat restored some ties to the papacy, it largely favored the state.<ref name=Vilmer>Template:Cite journal</ref> Within a year Napoleon unilaterally amended the agreement with the Organic Articles legislating religious practice.

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)<ref name="twelve">Template:Cite web</ref> and Italy (1984, Article 7.3),<ref name="fifty">Template:Cite web</ref> or phrasing it indirectly, as in Portugal (2004, art. 12).<ref name="fiftyone">Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Papal primacy and infallibility

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.<ref name="fiftytwo">Template:Cite web</ref> Thus, a small shrine within the walls of a cinema, holiday resort, shop, restaurant or hotel is sufficient to confer religious exemption.<ref name="fiftythree">"Gli alberghi dei santi alla crociata dell'Ici" ("Tax crusade marches on the holy hotels"), Curzio Maltese, La Repubblica, 25 October 2007.</ref> 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.<ref name="fiftyfour">Template:Cite news</ref> However, after that nothing more about this was heard from the Barroso Commission and a few months later the Prodi government fell.Template:Cn

The Slovak concordat (2000, art. 20.2) ensures that church offertories are "not subject to taxation or to the requirement of public accountability".<ref name="fortythree">Template:Cite web</ref>

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 president. 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".<ref name="fiftysix">Template:Cite magazine</ref> 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).<ref name="twentyseven">Template:Cite web</ref>

In Colombia there was a crisis between state and church in 1994 when Attorney-General Gustavo de Greiff accused several bishops of having illegal contacts with the FARC guerrillas. It turned out that under Colombia's concordat with the Holy See, members of the clergy could only be investigated by ecclesiastical courts which are ruled by canon law, and that the bishops were therefore immune from investigation by the civil authorities on what many in Colombia considered to be a serious felony.Template:Cn

List

There have been at least several hundred concordats over the centuries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following is a sortable list of the concordats and other bilateral agreements concluded by the Holy See.

Treaty	Contracting party	Date of conclusion	Date of entering into force
1107 Concordat of London with Henry I of	Template:Flag	1 Aug 1107
1122 Concordat of Worms between Pope Calixtus II and Henry V of the	Template:Flag	23 Sep 1122
1161 Concordat between Pope Alexander III and Géza II of	Template:Flagcountry	1161
1169 Concordat between Pope Alexander III and Stephen III of	Template:Flagcountry	1169
1210 Parliament of Ravennika between Pope Innocent III and the princes of	Frankish Greece	May 1210
1277 Concordat of Tonsberg between Jon Raude, Archbishop of Nidaros and Magnus VI of	Template:Flag	1277
1289 Concordat of the Forty Articles	Template:Flag	7 March 1289
1418 Concordats of Constance	Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap Template:Nowrap		21 March 1418
1426 Concordat between Pope Martin V and Charles VII of	Template:Flagcountry	1426
Fürsten Konkordat between Pope Eugenius IV and the Princes Electors of the	Template:Flag	Jan 1447
1516 Concordat of Bologna between Pope Leo X and King Francis I of	Template:Flagcountry	Sep 1516
1610 Concordat of Mi'kmaw between Pope Paul V and Grand Chief Henri Membertou of	Template:Flagicon image Mi'kmaw Nation	1610<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1737 Concordat of Wschowa between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	10 Jul 1737	13 Sep 1737
1753 Concordat of Bologna between Pope Benedict XIV and King Ferdinand VI of	Template:Flag	1753
1801 Concordat between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon of	Template:Flag	15 July 1801
1803 Concordat between Pope Pius VII and	Template:Flagcountry	16 September 1803<ref>Fredrik Nielsen, The History of the Papacy in the XIXth Century (London, 1906), p. 261</ref>	2 November 1803
1813 Concordat of Fontainebleau between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon of	Template:Flag	25 Jan. 1813
1817 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	5 Jun 1817
1817 Concordat between the Holy See and King Louis XVIII of	Template:Flag	11 Jun 1817
1827 Concordat between the Holy See and the	Template:Flag	16 Sep. 1827
1847 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	3 Aug 1847
1851 Concordat<ref>Concordat of 1851, Template:In lang</ref>Template:Unreliable source? between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	16 Mar 1851	11 May 1851
1852 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	7 Oct 1852	Dec 1852
1854 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	1852	1854
1855 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	18 Aug 1855
1862 Concordat<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	Apr 1862
1882 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	23 Dec. 1882
1886 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	23 June 1886
1886 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	18 Aug. 1886
1887 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	1887
1914 Concordat<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	24 June 1914	20 March 1915<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
1922 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	30 May 1922<ref name=Metz138>René Metz, "What is Canon Law?" (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 [1st Edition]), pg. 138</ref>	3 Nov 1922
1925 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	10 Feb 1925<ref name=Metz138/>	2 Jul 1925
1927 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	10 May 1927	29 May 1929<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1927 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	27 Sep 1927<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1928 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	5 May 1928
1929 Lateran Treaty<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	11 Feb 1929	7 Jun 1929
1929 Prussian Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flagicon Prussian Free State	14 July 1929
1933 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	5 June 1933
1933 Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flagicon Germany	20 Jul 1933
1940 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	7 May 1940
1953 Concordat<ref>Concordat of 1953, Template:In lang</ref><ref>Concordato entre la Santa Sede y España Template:Webarchive, [html], Vatican website; accessed 15 February 2017.</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	27 Aug 1953	27 Oct 1953
1954 Concordat<ref>Concordat of 1954, Template:In lang</ref><ref>Concordato entre la Santa Sede y la República Dominicana, [html], Vatican website; accessed 14 January 2020.</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	16 June 1954
1993 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	28 Jul 1993	25 Apr 1998
1993 Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	30 Dec 1993	10 Mar 1994
1996 Agreements between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	18 Dec 1996<ref name="HS-CRO96.1"/><ref name="HS-CRO96.2"/><ref name="HS-CRO96.3"/>	11<ref name="HS-CRO96.1">Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o suradnji na području odgoja i kulture Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref><ref name="HS-CRO96.2">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 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref> and 25 Feb 1997<ref name="HS-CRO96.3">Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o pravnim pitanjima Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref>
1997 Agreement between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	20 June 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	3 April 1998
1997 Legal Personality Agreement<ref>Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legal Personality Agreement Template:Webarchive</ref> between the Holy See the State of	Template:Flag	10 Nov 1997
1998 Agreement between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	9 Oct 1998<ref name="HS-CRO98">Odluka o proglašenju Zakona o potvrđivanju Ugovora između Svete Stolice i Republike Hrvatske o gospodarskim pitanjima Template:Webarchive Template:In lang</ref>	30 Dec 1998<ref name="HS-CRO98"/>
2000 Basic Agreement<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	15 February 2000	15 February 2000
2000 Agreement<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	8 November 2000	25 October 2002
2004 Treaty between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	13 May 2004	9 Jul 2004<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2004 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	18 May 2004
2004 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	28 May 2004
Basic Agreement<ref>2006 Basic Agreement</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	19 Apr 2006	25 Oct 2007
2008 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	13 Nov 2008
2009 Concordat between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	12 Jan 2009
2015 Comprehensive agreement<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> between the Holy See and	Template:Flagcountry	26 Jun 2015<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	2 Jan 2016<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2016 Framework agreement on matters of mutual interest between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	20 May 2016
2016 Framework agreement on matters of mutual interest between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	8 Sep 2016
2016 Framework agreement regarding the legal status of the Catholic Church between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	22 Oct 2016
2024 Treaty on Certain Legal Issues between the Holy See and	Template:Flag	24 Oct 2024

Bibliography

• Template:Cite journal
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• Template:Cite EB1911

External links

• Concordat Watch