After being a target of significant animosity and suppression by the regime in the 1940s and the 1950s, the Catholic Church's status in Croatia also improved as a consequence of the democratization of the country, particularly in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vatican and Yugoslavia in 1966. By the mid-1960s, public religious events were permitted again, and the relationship between the Church and the state was that of mutual tolerance. The Catholic Church in Croatia, however, did not take an active role in the national movement and political events associated with it, even if its leadership was privately sympathetic with the reformists.