Religion and COVID-19 in Croatia: Preference for Religion and Varieties of (Non)compliance

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the legal and sociological aspects of the pandemic that pertain to religion. The legal measures undertaken by the Croatian government have not been challenged via the judicial system; the use of the courts for this purpose was almost non-existent. Concerning the sociological aspects, we focus on varieties of (non)compliance with government-prescribed measures at various levels of the Catholic community (religious leadership, clergy, and believers), as well as on how this (non)compliance changed over time. We also describe anti-mask attitudes and conspiracy theories in the belief that these phenomena, though not directly relatable to religion, reveal the overall social climate as a framework in which the social role of religion during the pandemic can be traced. Our analysis shows that the close relationship between the state and the Catholic Church was also evident during the pandemic. Furthermore, public debates about public health measures related to COVID-19 (e.g. vaccines and COVID-19 passes) contributed to the politicisation of the disease, and religion played an important role in this process. Although there is an evident lack of data on religious phenomena during the pandemic in Croatia, this chapter uses a variety of sources, including legal texts, the documents of public officials and institutions, media reports, and existing scholarly studies.