Dr. Baloban: “The Church Cannot Finance a University Alone”

Zagreb, September 4, 2003 (IKA) — In an interview published in the Zagreb daily newspaper Večernji list entitled “The Church Cannot Finance a University Alone,” Prof. Josip Baloban, dean of the Catholic College of Theology in Zagreb, expressed several opinions in connection with the idea of starting a Catholic university, which will be one of the topics of the forthcoming autumn session of the Croatian Conference of Bishops. According to Dr. Baloban, the fundamental question is “whether this university in today’s plural society would function in the direction of a ‘Catholic orientation’ or would it act neutrally upon the world view of its students.” “It could only have a certain influence on higher education,” pointed out Dr. Baloban in the interview, “if it were equal or even superior in terms of ‘qualities’ and financial abilities to other universities.” In the opinion of the dean of the Catholic College of Theology, the idea of a Catholic university is hindered for three reasons. The first reason is that Croatia is a Central European country in which theology, in the past and today, has been present in the public universities. As a second reason, Dr. Baloban cites the possibility of a type of “ghettoization by concentrating good professorial staff of Christian profile solely at this university.” The third reason, that represents an unbridgeable problem for the Church, is the financing of a Catholic university. Dr. Baloban said that it is possible to consider the establishment of a private university that the Church would support in principal, but would not participate in its establishment or financing.