Abstract
The article discusses the importance of concordat agreements that current countries conclude with the Holy See and points out the benefits of these concordats for countries and their citizens - both Catholics and others. The article comments on changes undergone by concordats since the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, and provides an overview of concordats at the global level.
The article shows that concordats are regularly concluded even with countries in which Catholics represent only a minority of a country's inhabitants. Albania is an example, and the author describes Albania's difficult path to religious freedom and to the conclusion of concordats in recent times (2002, 2008).
He notes that the final country in Central Europe that has not yet ratified a concordat with the Holy See is the Czech Republic, and he hopes that a concordat with the Czech Republic will be ratified eventually.