The Catholic Church in Croatia has embarked on some large construction projects.The newest project that the Church will be building is the new building of the Croatian Bishop’s Conference (HBK) in the area of Zagreb at the foot of the Sljeme mountain.
The cost of the project will be about 10 million euros, which the Church will finance with foreign donations, writes Vecernji List.
The Informative Catholic Agency, the Croatian Caritas and the Croatian Catholic Radio will be located in the Bishop’s Conference building complex.
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Goran Rusmir |
The second large investment that the Church is getting into is the construction of the Croatian Catholic University on the premises of the ex-army barracks in Zagreb’s suburb Crnomerec.
That project should be complete by the start of 2009, when it has been announced that the university will start with work.
Work is currently under way on the inside of the building.
€200 million will be spent on the renovation of the cathedral
The Church will spend the most money on the renovation of Zagreb’s cathedral that should finally cost 200 million kuna.
The Church is getting help from the City of Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia, but the Church is not happy with the amount of financial help.
Church representatives said that it is time for the City of Zagreb and state to seriously get involved into the renovation of the cathedral.
Besides these three large projects in Zagreb, the Church has announced that it will start to renovate buildings in other parts of Croatia.
A lot of money has been spent on expanding a Franciscan monastery in Trsat, Rijeka as well as a Benedictine monastery on the island of Mljet.
Also, a lot of funds went to remodelling some of the premises that the Split diocese gained after denationalisation.
Denationalised property returned to the church creates extra expenses
The Benedictine monastery on the island of Mljet was nationalised during communism and a lot of money will need to be spent in its renovation, and a similar case is in Lepoglava, where the Church has gained a monastery that was nationalised at the time.
It is obvious that the nationalised assets have brought the Church many expenses, and bishops have entered some new projects themselves.
The Croatian state budget gives the Church €300 million per year.
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