Today, in the run-up to the visit of the Secretary of State, cardinal Pietro Parolin, to Serbia (June 30^th – July 1^st), the president of Serbia, Alexander Vucic, met the Catholic bishops of the Balkan country. During the interview, they talked of the relationships between the State institutions and authorities and the Catholic community. Despite acknowledging the State’s efforts to solve pending issues and help the life and work of the Catholic community in Serbia, the prelates raised the problem of the catechists’ unrecognised academic qualifications and the problem of the ecclesial properties confiscated by the communist regime and never returned, as well as the ecclesiastical registers that the Church would like to have back from the State. “The problem with the academic qualifications consists in the fact that the Institute of Theology of the Vojvodina region, where the future teachers of Catholic religion in schools study, is not recognised by the Ministry of Education”, father Mirko Stefkovic, general secretary of the International Conference “Saints Cyril and Methodius”, explains to SIR. After the meeting with president Vucic, a meeting has already been organised with the Ministry of Education on July 2^nd to solve the problem. “Even before it started, cardinal Parolin’s visit is bearing fruit”, don Stefkovic states.