Culture minister Daniel Krajcer has opened up the question on funding of churches following a meeting on Thursday with representatives of the various clergy and religious communities.
Krajcer is not keen on the fact that church funding is based on an old law that dates back to 1949 and so he is hoping to amend the rules for funding through negotiations with involved parties. He feels society has come a long way since then and so the system has to be adapted accordingly.
Now a special expert commission will be set up to set out recommendations and prepare the groundwork for discussions. Although the various religious groups welcomed the new dialogue, Bratislava archbishop Stanislav Zvolensky said that the systems used in Austria and Germany, for instance, are not really workable for the Slovak Republic.
On behalf of the Jewish community, renowned neurologist, Professor Pavel Traubner, has expressed his concerns that the community would find it very hard to survive if state funding were to be severed totally.