Zagreb, (IKA) – Findings of the international project European Values Study – EVS-2008) were presented on Friday, October 15, at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Institute in Zagreb.
This international interdisciplinary project investigating the positions and values of Europeans, i.e., their attitudes toward marriage and the family, work and leisure, religion and morality, politics and numerous other topics, was discussed by its leader for Croatia, Dr. Josip Baloban, and the methodologist Dr. Ivan Rimac. Dr. Ivan Rogić of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences and Dr. Josip Grbac of the Theological Faculty, University of Rijeka, presented and commented upon the published results.
Those assembled were also addressed by the Archbishop of Zagreb and Grand Chancellor of the Catholic Theological Faculty of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić; the Minister of Science, Education and Sports, Dr. Radovan Fuchs; the Rector of the University of Zagreb, Dr. Aleksa Bjeliš; the Dean of the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb, Dr. Josip Oslić; the Director of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Dr. Vlado Šakić; the Head of the Center for the Promotion of the Social Doctrine of the Church of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, Dr. Gordan Črpić; and the Director of Kršćanska sadašnjost, Dr. Željko Tanjić.
Presenting the project, which was begun in Western Europe in 1981 and joined by Croatia in 1999, led by the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb, Dr. Baloban said that the study has yielded sufficient results, insights and lessons for reflection upon the current status of individual values, as well as impetus for action and promotion of the fundamental values in society. He also emphasized that it is necessary to invest in values because without morality in personal behavior and activity, as well as in communal life, the Croatian society has no chance of overcoming the current crisis.
Dr. Baloban also said that the study has confirmed that there is a certain degree of ambivalence in the behavior of Croatian citizens, which is often contradictory, as he illustrated with two examples. As the first example, he noted that 66 percent of the respondents approved of a woman having a child without a stable relationship with the child’s father, while at the same time nearly 80 percent of the respondents stated that a child needs a father and a mother in order to grow up happily. Furthermore, 81 percent of Croatian citizens do not consider marriage to be an obsolete institution, said Dr. Baloban, adding: “and we know that in the past thirty or so years every fifth or sixth marriage ends in divorce,” which again indicates that the discrepancy between the desired ideal and the actual realization of that ideal is considerable.
Speaking from a theological point of view and discussing the concept of religiosity, Dr. Grbac, among other things, pointed out that the study findings evidently show that a good part of Croatian citizens view religiosity as a personal sense of communication with the transcendent, especially in crisis situations, while the number of those who experience religiosity as the foundation of morality, i.e., personal behavior in daily life, is relatively small. At the conclusion of the presentation, Cardinal Bozanić spoke about the need for cooperation when it comes to values: “All of us need to strive constantly to reach a consensus in our society regarding certain values that have to be safeguarded, promoted and not called into question.”
The presentation was jointly organized by the Catholic Theological Faculty of Zagreb, the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, the Center for the Promotion of the Social Doctrine of the Church of the Croatian Conference of Bishops and Kršćanska sadašnjost. The study findings have been published in the scholarly journals Bogoslovska smotra [Theological Review] and Društvena istraživanja [Social Research].