Concordat


A concordat 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, i.e. the recognition and privileges of the Catholic Church in a particular country and with secular matters that impact on church interests.
According to P.W. Brown the use of the term "concordat" does not appear "until the pontificate of Pope Martin V in a work by Nicholas de Cusa, entitled De Concordantia Catholica". The first concordat dates from 1098, and from then to the beginning of the First World War the Holy See signed 74 concordats. Due to the substantial remapping of Europe that took place after the war, new concordats with legal successor states were necessary. The post-World War I era saw the greatest proliferation of concordats in history.
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 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.

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.

Church–State dichotomy

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.
However, from a non-Catholic perspective, Catholic church privileges pose certain concerns regarding religious freedom, such as:
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 and Italy, or phrasing it indirectly, as in Portugal.
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. Thus, a small shrine within the walls of a cinema, holiday resort, shop, restaurant or hotel is sufficient to confer religious exemption. 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. However, after that nothing more about this was heard from the Barroso Commission and a few months later the Prodi government fell.
The Slovak concordat ensures that church offertories are "not subject to taxation or to the requirement of public accountability".
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". Nevertheless, this concordat ensures that the foundation’s income and assets remain untaxed, it holds these funds beyond the reach of both criminal and civil law, it permits this money to be sent out of the country and it keeps all the foundation’s documents "inviolable", in other words, secret.
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.

List

Further information: Treaties of the Holy See, Multilateral Treaties signed by the Holy See and Concordats with individual states of Germany
There have been at least several hundred concordats over the centuries.
The following is a sortable list of the concordats and other bilateral agreements concluded by the Holy See.
TreatyContracting partyDate of conclusionDate of entering into force
1107 Concordat of London with Henry I ofEngland1 Aug 1107
1122 Concordat of Worms between Pope Calixtus II and Henry V of theHoly Roman Empire23 Sep 1122
1210 Parliament of Ravennika between Pope Innocent III and the princes ofFrankish GreeceMay 1210
1277 Concordat of Tonsberg between Jon Raude, Archbishop of Nidaros and Magnus VI ofNorway1277
1289 Concordat of the Forty ArticlesPortugal7 March 1289
1418 Concordats of ConstanceFrance, England, Germany, Spain, Italy21 March 1418
1426 Concordat between Pope Martin V and Charles VII ofFrance1426
Fürsten Konkordat between Pope Eugenius IV and the Princes Electors of theHoly Roman EmpireJan 1447
1516 Concordat of Bologna between Pope Leo X and King Francis I ofFranceSep 1516
1610 Concordat of Mi'kmaw between Pope Paul V and Grand Chief Henri Membertou ofGrand Council of Mi'kmaw Nation1610
1753 Concordat of Bologna between Pope Benedict XIV and King Ferdinand VI ofSpain1753
1801 Concordat between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon ofFrance15 July 1801
1813 Concordat of Fontainebleau between Pope Pius VII and Napoléon ofFrance25 Jan. 1813
1817 Concordat between the Holy See andBavaria5 Jun 1817
1817 Concordat between the Holy See and King Louis XVIII ofFrance11 Jun 1817
1827 Concordat between the Holy See and theNetherlands16 Sep. 1827
1847 Concordat between the Holy See andRussia3 Aug 1847
1851 Concordat between the Holy See andSpain16 Mar 185111 May 1851
1852 Concordat between the Holy See andCosta Rica7 Oct 1852Dec 1852
1854 Concordat between the Holy See andGuatemala18521854
1855 Concordat between the Holy See andAustria1855
1882 Concordat between the Holy See andRussia23 Dec. 1882
1886 Concordat between the Holy See andPortugal23 June 1886
1886 Concordat between the Holy See andMontenegro18 Aug. 1886
1887 Concordat between the Holy See andColombia1887
1914 Concordat between the Holy See andSerbia24 June 191420 March 1915
1922 Concordat between the Holy See andLatvia30 May 19223 Nov 1922
1925 Concordat between the Holy See andPoland10 Feb 19252 Jul 1925
1927 Concordat between the Holy See andRomania10 May 192729 May 1929
1927 Concordat between the Holy See andLithuania27 Sep 1927
1928 Concordat between the Holy See andColombia5 May 1928
1929 Lateran Treaty between the Holy See andItaly11 Feb 19297 Jun 1929
1929 Prussian Concordat between the Holy See andPrussian Free State14 July 1929
1933 Concordat between the Holy See andAustria5 June 1933
1933 Reichskonkordat between the Holy See andGermany20 Jul 1933
1940 Concordat between the Holy See andPortugal7 May 1940
1953 Concordat between the Holy See andSpain27 Aug 195327 Oct 1953
1954 Concordat between the Holy See andDominican Republic16 June 1954
1993 Concordat between the Holy See andPoland28 Jul 199325 Apr 1998
1993 Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See andIsrael30 Dec 199310 Mar 1994
1996 Agreements between the Holy See andCroatia18 Dec 199611 and 25 Feb 1997
1997 Agreement between the Holy See andHungary20 June 19973 April 1998
1997 Legal Personality Agreement between the Holy See the State ofIsrael10 Nov 1997
1998 Agreement between the Holy See andCroatia9 Oct 199830 Dec 1998
2000 Basic Agreement between the Holy See andState of Palestine15 February 200015 February 2000
2004 Treaty between the Holy See andSlovakia13 May 20049 Jul 2004
2004 Concordat between the Holy See andPortugal18 May 2004
2004 Concordat between the Holy See andSlovenia28 May 2004
Basic Agreement between the Holy See andBosnia and Herzegovina19 Apr 200625 Oct 2007
2008 Concordat between the Holy See andBrazil13 Nov 2008
2009 Concordat between the Holy See andSchleswig-Holstein12 Jan 2009
2015 Comprehensive agreement between the Holy See andState of Palestine26 Jun 20152 Jan 2016
2016 Framework agreement on matters of mutual interest between the Holy See andDemocratic Republic of Congo20 May 2016
2016 Framework agreement on matters of mutual interest between the Holy See andCentral African Republic8 Sep 2016
2016 Framework agreement regarding the legal status of the Catholic Church between the Holy See andRepublic of Benin22 Oct 2016