The Church Financing Scheme: Its Influence on Religious Freedom in Czechoslovakia to 1989

The financing of church life in the Slovak Republic is still a topical theme. Cofinancing church activities from the national budget has not always garnered a positive response among the laity. The current scheme of financing Slovak churches developed out of the cooperative model of a relationship with the state. Its roots are found in the reformation period of Emperor Joseph II (1780–1790). The traditional church financing scheme was cleverly used by the communist regime that came to power in Czechoslovakia after the end of the Second World War. The author demonstrates, using specific documentation from archived materials, the limitations to religious freedom that resulted from the scheme of the state taking on the financing of church life.