The most Catholic country in Europe? Croatia and the RCC
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When I originally read this article, I thought it was about the Vatican City (which cannot join the EU due to the small matter of it being a religious theocracy but is already effectively a member anyway due its sheer interconnectedness with Italy), not Croatia.
Quote:
The most Catholic country in Europe? Croatia and the Catholic church
A brief history of the Croatian Catholic church under Tito
The years following the Partisan victory in World War II were taken up with dealing with the Ustaše – the fascist, ultra-Catholic regime that had ruled the Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1943. Those Ustaše who were captured were tried for crimes related to the mass murder of Croatia’s Jewish and Serb Orthodox populations. Aloysius Stepinac, the Archbishop of Zagreb at the time, was found guilty of collaborating with the Ustaše. Whether Stepinac was wholly guilty of the charges against him, or whether he was the victim of an over-zealous Communist kangaroo court continues to be disputed. But he remains a controversial figure, generally despised by Serbs and beloved by Croats, who view him as a martyr and figurehead for the Croat nation.
Croatia was, of course, part of the former multi-national Yugoslavia, which was freed from Nazi occupation by a Communist partisan movement headed by Josip Tito, started to fracture especially after his death in 1980 and broke up into warring states after 1989. From the 1950s, following an initial crackdown on religious organisations in Yugoslavia, Tito began to take a more conciliatory approach towards religion. The Law on Religious Communities, passed in 1953, made the Catholic Church de jure independent, and with the 'Belgrade Protocol' of 1967, relations between the Holy See and Yugoslavia were normalised. During the Cold War, Yugoslavia was the only ‘communist’ country to maintain relations with the Vatican, and freedom of religion was respected to a far greater degree than in other communist regimes.
- 2013 is set to be an important year for both the Catholic Church, which elects a new pope, and Croatia, which will become the 28th member of the EU. These two entities share a long history, with the former wielding significant, yet often ignored, influence on political life in the latter.
A brief history of the Croatian Catholic church under Tito
The years following the Partisan victory in World War II were taken up with dealing with the Ustaše – the fascist, ultra-Catholic regime that had ruled the Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1943. Those Ustaše who were captured were tried for crimes related to the mass murder of Croatia’s Jewish and Serb Orthodox populations. Aloysius Stepinac, the Archbishop of Zagreb at the time, was found guilty of collaborating with the Ustaše. Whether Stepinac was wholly guilty of the charges against him, or whether he was the victim of an over-zealous Communist kangaroo court continues to be disputed. But he remains a controversial figure, generally despised by Serbs and beloved by Croats, who view him as a martyr and figurehead for the Croat nation.
Croatia was, of course, part of the former multi-national Yugoslavia, which was freed from Nazi occupation by a Communist partisan movement headed by Josip Tito, started to fracture especially after his death in 1980 and broke up into warring states after 1989. From the 1950s, following an initial crackdown on religious organisations in Yugoslavia, Tito began to take a more conciliatory approach towards religion. The Law on Religious Communities, passed in 1953, made the Catholic Church de jure independent, and with the 'Belgrade Protocol' of 1967, relations between the Holy See and Yugoslavia were normalised. During the Cold War, Yugoslavia was the only ‘communist’ country to maintain relations with the Vatican, and freedom of religion was respected to a far greater degree than in other communist regimes.
From what I know about Croatia, it's an extremely Catholic country. I plan to visit it later this year and have a look about (I plan to be there on Accession Day). There looks like there is far, far more to the country than just Dubrovnik.
There is certainly much more to Croatia than Dubrovnik. The population of Croatia is 4.2 million people, whereas the population of Dubrovnik is 42,000. It's only the 13th biggest city in Croatia.
I am of Croatian descent and have visited the country several times. It is a beautiful country.
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