Hungary Updates Concordat Granting Legal and Financial Privileges to Vatican

In October, the Hungarian Parliament signed an update to the country’s 1997 concordat with the Holy See. The Vatican Information Service and Zenit both published short reports to the effect that the new agreement changed some of the terms of the special status granted to the Holy See and its institutions within the country’s legal structure, but details have been scarce. All that is known is that the new language involves the financial aspects of religious instruction in schools, Catholic institutions of higher learning, the earmarking of a portion of tax revenues for the Catholic church in Hungary, the ownership of religious art, as well as certain church-owned real estate that was not included in the 1997 concordat.