Pupena V. Constitutional and legal regulation of relations between the state and the church in Slovak Republic

It is proved that established in the late 40's of the twentieth century. In Central and Eastern Europe, communist regimes had the features and characteristics of a totalitarian state regime: official ideology, brutal class morals, sacralization of power, rejection of the values of previous forms of democracy, declarative constitutions, a single communist party, secret police, and other instruments of violence. Kidnappings, deportations to forced labor camps, torture, and other inhumane treatment of people for political, ideological, ethnic, or religious reasons are classified as crimes against humanity in accordance with preconceived notions. From the point of view of constitutionalism, the basic models of relations between the state and the church are distinguished according to the criterion of the legal status of the church in the state: the primacy of the church over the state, the subordination of the church to the state, state-church confrontation, The study of the legal framework and achievements of domestic and foreign experts in ecclesiastical law allowed us to conclude that in modern Slovakia a cooperative form of state-church relations has been established, which determines a wide range of their interaction, namely: recognition of religious marriages, religious education. in state educational institutions, restitution of church property, direct state material support of the church, remuneration of priests, cooperation in the protection of cultural monuments of religious significance, as well as non-interference of the state in the activities of churches when these activities do not contradict current legislation.