Jedan konkretni povijesni primjer: austrijski "klerikalizam"

Ivan Pederin - Izvorni znanstveni članak

A concrete historical example: Austrian "clericalism"

Sažetak
Austrijska se carevina držala klerikalnom, što nije rezultat znanstvenog istraživanja, već je to nazor koji potječe iz politike i dugo se razvikivao u novinstvu. U ovom prilogu ispituje se i istražuje odnos Crkve i države u Carevini. Taj odnos bio je uravnotežen, Crkva je imala veliki utjecaj u društvu kao čuvarica i nadzornica javne ćudorednosti, biskupi i mnogi svećenici djelovali su kao savjetnici vrhova državnog aparata, osobito početkom XIX. stoljeća kad je valjalo suzbiti utjecaj masona i liberala koji su u Francuskoj revoluciji progonili Crkvu, a kasnije su bili nositelji protuklerikalizma. Međutim, austrijska država bila je laička, a Crkva se nije miješala u državne poslove. Vodila je ipak matičnu službu, mnogo je svećenika radilo u svim školama, ali se Sveta Stolica nikad nije miješala u unutarnje poslove Carevine.

Abstract
The Habsburg Empire was branded as clerical but this qualification is a result of political considerations rather than any serious study. In examining this question, the author first defines the meaning of clericalism. Then he describes the position of the Church in that old European state. The Church used to cooperate with state authorities to help ensure social and political order. That changed after the Enlightenment. In the Habsburg Empire, the Church retained its control of marriages and vital statistics. Schools were state-owned except for the bishop's seminaries, but many priests taught in these schools and bishops were consulted by state authorities on most matters concerning public order and morality (so, for instance, an unmarried couple was not allowed to live in the same household). The state authority was secular and separated from the Church, but it was Christian and not anticlerical as it was in France and Italy. The Church strongly influenced the public morality but not political decision-making. Just to mention the fact that in the Empire eight religious communities lived peacefully, that the Jewish community of the Empire was among the strongest in Europe and that the considerable Jewish influence in the press, literature, banking, industry and trade was not opposed by the Church. Indeed, the Empire may well be considered a multicultural model worth emulating and this model has not yet been surpassed.