DEC 28, 2014  

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de-secularization of the

Croatian high education

At the faculty session of the Tekstilno-tehnološki fakultet, TTF (Faculty of Textile Technology; College of Textile Technology, in American English) in Zagreb, Croatia on Nov. 24, 1997, by secret ballot (29 out of 32), Saint Paul was named as the guardian of the college. I’ve missed that important moment of the disintegration of the Croatian civil society but a recent article on the TTF website put me back on track.

As I commented earlier [070422], Croatia is a secular state only declaratively, not in practice. The separation of church and government institutions proved itself to be essential ingredient of the Western-type democracy - but then who is to say any type of democracy is functional in Croatia? The totalitarian structure of the Socialist Republic of Croatia has been replaced by the totalitarian mafia-type structure of the current Croatian state - of which the Croatian Catholic church exhibits itself to be an essential ingredient. A secular state protects both, freedom of religion and freedom from religion. A secular state prevents religion from interfering with state affairs; it prevents religion from controlling government or exercising political power. None of that is true in present-day Croatia. Everyday public life in Croatia is saturated with Catholicism as a political power. The church is exploiting the untempered servility of Croatian politicians but I didn’t expect it will subdue the heart of civil society, the public high education, as well.

While proposing the guardianship of Saint Paul, the dean of TTF repeatedly stressed Saint Paul’s ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ principle. The so-called golden rule do unto others is apparently a core principle of every major religion - they just can’t agree on what love entails and who your neighbor is. That side of the ‘love your neighbor’ message might explain the deans proposal. Because, judging from the TTF’s involvement in the neo-fascists festivities like Bleiburg, the Saint Paul's guardianship is a political statement, not a religious one.