Historiographical view on the Slovak Catholic school (1918-1938)

This contribution analyzes the issues and problems which affected Slovak Catholic Education in the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic and outlines the possible perspectives for further investigation. The relationship between the State and Church in the early years of the Republic, is characterized by a strong wave of anti-Catholic sentiment and the effort to push the Church out of the public sphere, including politics, culture, and particularly, from of all areas of education. As a result, great emphasis was given to solve the relationship between Church and state in the form of separation, but all efforts ended in failure. Therefore, the opponents of the Catholic Church focused, at least, on the partial things that separation as a whole should solve, for example, implementing the deconsecration of educational facilities and training. This is also the reason why the Slovak Catholic education in the years 1918-1938 is most frequently mentioned in historical accounts in connection with this process of separation of Church and state; The central theme of any historical literature centering on this subject, is the effort to preserve the Catholic character of schools as a means of defence against anti-Catholicism and the struggle against its secularization which has become singularly, the most important issue within this subject matter.