Impact of the "Holy Crash" on Trust in the Church in Slovenia

In: East European politics and societies: EEPS, Band 28, Heft 1, S. 119-136

Abstract

The 2011 Slovene Public Opinion Survey and World Values Survey have determined that trust in the Roman Catholic Church in Slovenia has fallen to an all-time low in the post-independence era: only 25 percent of Slovenes expressed a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the Church. This article considers how the Church's social power has been impacted by the so-called Holy Crash, namely, the 2010 collapse of the Archdiocese of Maribor's financial empire and its investments and interests in various enterprises controlled through its Gospodarstvo Rast financial management company. Revealed is the fact that, in recent years, trust has been eroded most in the Podravje (Drava) and Koroška (Carinthia) regions of Slovenia, both of which lie within the Maribor archdiocese. This decline supports the central hypothesis that the scandal and secrecy surrounding the collapse have negatively impacted trust in the Roman Catholic Church.