Institutional Opportunity Structures: State and Catholic Church Relations in Lithuania

The idea that religious actors may affect political processes and decisions is not new, however, how exactly this complex relationship unfolds is a matter of continuous scholarly debates. One of the „reverse“ hypotheses has been that the spread of secular values transforms institutions and their practices, and eventually limits religious influence in politics. But in recent years more scholars have turned to religious institutions as an explanatory variable in relation to various public policy outcomes, which in turn create different legal constraints and opportunities for advancing religious agenda. This article is an attempt to examine state and Catholic Church relations in Lithuania through the concept of institutional opportunity structures. In 2000, Lithuania has signed three international agreements with the Holy See recreating a formal institutional relationship between state and church . The article analyzes the transformative potential and impact of these formalised institutional arrangements.