Catholic Church in Croatia
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2018) |
Apostolic Nuncio | Giorgio Lingua | |
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Region | Croatia | |
Language | Croatian, Latin | |
Headquarters | Zagreb | |
Founder | Pope John IV and Abbot Martin, according to tradition | |
Origin | c. 65: in Roman Illyricum c. 640: Croatian Christianity | |
Members | 3,057,586 (2021) | |
Ministers | c. 3800[1] | |
Official website | Croatian Bishops' Conference |
Part of a series on the |
Catholic Church in Croatia |
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The Catholic Church in Croatia (
A 2011 census estimated that there were 3.7 million baptized Latin Catholics and about 20,000 baptized
The national sanctuary of Croatia is in Marija Bistrica, while the country's patron is Saint Joseph: the Croatian Parliament unanimously declared him to be the national patron in 1687.[4]
History
Roman Illyrians and early Christianity
The western part of the
Following their conquests, the Romans organised the area into the province of Illyricum, which was eventually split up into Dalmatia and Pannonia. Through being part of the Roman Empire, various religious cults were brought into the region. This included the Levantine-originated religion of Christianity. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 391. [6]
In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, and the dividing line went through the Balkans. Illyricum fell under the rule of Rome and the rest fell under the rule of Byzantium. [6]
Indeed,
Conversion of the Croats
The Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They came in touch with the Christian natives and started to slowly accept Christianity. Byzantine and Frankish missionaries and Benedictines who were bringing Western cultural influences had a significant role in the christening of Croats.
Croats had their first contact with the Holy See in year 641 when the papal envoy Abbot Martin came to them in order to redeem Christian captives and the bones of the martyrs that Croats were keeping. There is little information about the "Baptism of the Croats", but it is known that it was peacefully and freely accepted, and that it took place between the 7th and the 9th century.
Byzantine emperor
Historical sources mention the christening of Croatian rulers
By the 9th century, Croats have already been fully included in a large European Christian community. Croatian rulers
In 925, Croatian King
King
Zvonimir took an oath of allegiance to Pope, by which he promised his support in the implementations of the Church reforms in Croatia. After the Papal legate crowned him, Zvonimir in 1076 gave the
Middle Ages
When Croatia lost its own dynasty and entered into a
Since the 9th century there is in Croatia a unique phenomenon in the entire world of Catholicism, liturgy that was held in
During the Croatian–Ottoman Wars that lasted from 15th to 19th century Croats strongly fought against the Turks which resulted in the fact that the westernmost border of the Ottoman Empire and Europe became entrenched on the soil of the Croatian Kingdom. In 1519, Croatia was called the Antemurale Christianitatis by Pope Leo X.
Austrian Empire/Austria-Hungary
The Austrian Empire signed a concordat with the Holy See in 1855 which regulated the Catholic Church within the empire.[13]
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
In Yugoslavia, the Croatian bishops were part of the
The situation of the Catholic Church in the new kingdom was affected by the pro-Orthodox policy of the Yugoslav government and the strong influence of the
The Church in the Independent State of Croatia
In 1941, a Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), was established by the fascist dictator Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše movement. The Ustaše regime pursued a genocidal policy against the Serbs (who were Eastern Orthodox Christians), Jews and Romani.[16]
Historian
British writer
Vatican under Secretary of State
Many Croatian nationalist clergy supported the Pavelić's regime push to drive out Serbs, Gypsies and Jews, or force their conversion to Catholicism.
Phayer wrote that Stepinac came to be known as "judenfreundlich" ("Jew friendly") to the Nazi-linked Ustaše regime, and suspended a number of priest collaborators in his diocese.[21]
Archbishop Stepinac made many public statements criticizing developments in the NDH. On Sunday, 24 May 1942, to the irritation of Ustaša officials, he used the pulpit and a diocesan letter to condemn genocide in specific terms, although not mentioning Serbs:
All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are Gypsies, Black, European, or Aryan all have the same rights.... for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and all violence committed in the name of theories of class, race, or nationality. It is not permissible to persecute Gypsies or Jews because they are thought to be an inferior race.[22]
He also wrote a letter directly to Pavelić on 24 February 1943, stating: "The very Jasenovac camp is a stain on the honor of the NDH. Poglavnik! To those who look at me as a priest and a bishop I say as Christ did on the cross: Father forgive them for they know not what they do."[23]
Thirty-one priests were arrested following Stepinac's July and October 1943 explicit condemnations of race murders being read from pulpits across Croatia.[24] Martin Gilbert wrote that Stepinac, "who in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence, subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews".[25]
According to historian Jozo Tomasevich however, neither Stepinac nor the Croatian Catholic hierarchy or the Vatican ever made a public protest regarding the persecution of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church by the Ustaše and added that "it seems the Catholic Church fully supported the Ustasha regime and its policies".[16] The Catholic Press also praised Pavelić and the Ustaše.[16]
The
The Church in communist Yugoslavia
The
This idea was scuttled after Yugoslav leader
In 1945, the retired
In 1946, the Communist regime introduced the Law on State Registry Books which allowed the confiscation of church registries and other documents.[32] On 31 January 1952, the communist regime officially banned all religious education in public schools.[33]
That year the regime also expelled the Catholic Faculty of Theology from the University of Zagreb, to which it was not restored until democratic changes in 1991.[34][35]
In 1984, the Catholic Church held a National Eucharistic Congress in Marija Bistrica.
The Church in the Republic of Croatia
After Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, the Catholic Church regained its full freedom and influence.
During the Croatian War of Independence, Catholicism and Orthodoxy were often cited as a basic division between Croats and Serbs, which led to a massive destruction of churches (some 1,426 were destroyed or damaged).
In the Republic of Croatia, the Catholic Church has defined its legal position as autonomous in some areas, thus making it able to provide religious education in state primary and secondary schools to those students who choose it, establish Catholic schools and conduct pastoral care among the Catholics in the armed forces and police.
Through the ratification of treaties between the Holy See and Croatia on 9 April 1997, treaties that regulate legal issues, cooperation in education and culture, conducting pastoral care among the Catholics in the armed forces and police and financing Church from the state budget came into force. As regards to financing, the Church has received the following amounts of money over the last decade: 2001; 461.3 bln kunas, 2004–2007; 532 bln kunas, 2008–2011;475.5 bln kunas, 2012–2013; 523.5 bln kunas, plus around 200 million kunas per each year for teachers of religious studies in schools, around 60 million kunas for maintenance churches which are considered to be a cultural heritage etc.[38]
The Catholic Church in Croatia in modern times is very active in social and political life. It has implemented a number of actions in conservative spirit in order to promote its values such as: non-working Sunday, punishment of the crimes of the communist era, introducing religious education in schools, protection of marriage as the union of a man and a woman (2013 referendum), opposition to abortion (campaigning for "protecting human life from conception to natural death"), opposition to euthanasia, opposition to natural methods of family planning and the treatment of infertility, and opposition to artificial birth control methods.
With Croatian independence, the
Demographics
The published data from the
- 3,599,038 Catholic Croats
- 22,331 Catholic believers of regional affiliation
- 15,083 Catholic Italians
- 9,396 Catholic Hungarians
- 8,521 Catholic Czechs
- 8,299 Catholic Roma
- 8,081 Catholic Slovenes
- 7,109 Catholic Albanians
- 3,159 Catholic Slovaks
- 2,776 Catholic believers of undeclared nationality
- 2,391 Catholic Serbs
- 1,913 Catholic believers of other nationalities
- 1,847 Catholic Germans
- 1,692 Catholic Ruthenians
- 1,384 Catholic believers of unknown nationality
- 1,339 Catholic Ukrainians
- other individual ethnicities (under 1,000 people each)
Organisation
Hierarchy
Within Croatia the hierarchy consists of:
The bishops are organized into the Croatian Conference of Bishops, which is presided by the Archbishop of Zadar Mons. Želimir Puljić.
There are also historical bishoprics, including:
As of 2009, there were 1570 Catholic parishes in Croatia.[41]
Franciscans
There are three
- the Franciscan Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius based in Zagreb,
- the Franciscan Province of Saint Jerome based in Zadarand
- the Split.
Other orders
- Croatian Dominican Province
- Croatian Province of the Society of Jesus
- Croatian Salesian Province of Saint Don Bosco
- Croatian Carmelite Province of Saint Joseph the Father
Attitudes
Although the vast majority of Croatians declare themselves as Catholics, many of them do not follow the Church's teaching on moral and social issues. According to a Pew Research poll from 2017, only 27% of respondents attend mass regularly, 25% support the Church's stance on contraception, 43% support the Church's stance on ordination of women and 38% think abortion should be illegal in most cases. On the other hand, 66% support the Church's stance on same-sex marriage.[42]
Controversies
The Catholic Church in Croatia is criticised by some for promoting and tolerating neo-fascism[43] among its ranks:
Each year in December, the Catholic church in Croatia holds the annual memorial mass[44] dedicated to Ustasha fascist dictator Ante Pavelić in Zagreb and Split. These masses are known to attract groups of Pavelić's supporters dressed in clothes with Ustasha insignia.[45][46]
During the funeral of convicted ustasha WWII concentration camp commander Dinko Šakić, priest Vjekoslav Lasić said that "every honest Croat should be proud of Šakić's name"[47][48] and that "court which convicted Šakić, also convicted Croatia and its people".[49] These statements were strongly condemned by Simon Wiesenthal Center and Croatian Helsinki Committee.[47]
On 1 July 2017, Don Anđelko Kaćunko held a memorial mass for Ustasha Black Legion commander Jure Francetić on which he described Francetić as "a patriot who was willing to give his life for the homeland".[52]
On 2 July 2017, media published a picture of a Croatian Catholic priest posing for a picture with a group of young boys on a children's football tournament in Široki Brijeg, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their team was named "The Black Legion" and boys were all wearing black T-shirts, thus alluding to notorious ustasha militia of the same name.[53]
On 2 September 2017, while holding a mass near the town of Sinj, friar Božo Norac Kljajo equalized Za dom spremni and Praised be Jesus by saying that these are "both good intentioned, human and ancient Christian salutes which don't hold a single drop of hate or vengeance."[54]
Upon the death of
Places of Pilgrimage of the Croats
- Aljmaš
- Ludbreg
- Our Lady of Marija Bistrica
- Our Lady of Sinj
- Our Lady of Trsat
Notable people
- Josip Bozanić
- Juraj Dobrila, 19th-century bishop from Istria
- Ivan Grubišić, priest from Dalmatia, Member of Parliament 2011–2015
- Marija Krucifiksa Kozulić, established the only indigenous community of nuns founded in the Archdiocese of Rijeka
- Franjo Kuharić
- Croatian Catholic Movement
- Ivan Merz, blessed layman and Catholic activist
- Alojzije Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb during World War II
- Josip Juraj Strossmayer
- Franjo Šeper
- Roman Catholicpriest, mathematician, writer, and musical theorist primarily known for writing the first Croatian arithmetic textbook Arithmatika Horvatzka (published in Zagreb, 1758)
See also
References
- ^ "Koliko ima pedofila u Crkvi?". 22 July 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
- ^ "Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe". Pew Research Center. 10 May 2017.
- ^ US State Deptartment 2022 report
- ^ "Sv. Josip - zaštitnik hrvatske domovine". Archived from the original on 2016-02-13.
At its season on June 9th and 10th 1687 Croatian Parliament encouraged by the Bishop of Zagreb Martin Borković, unanimously declared St Joseph to be the patron of the Croatian Kingdom
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