RELIGION and YOUTH in CROATIA Dinka Marinović Jerolimov And

RELIGION AND YOUTH IN CROATIA Dinka Marinović Jerolimov and Boris Jokić Social and Religious Context of Youth Religiosity in Croatia During transitional periods, the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe shared several common characteristics regarding religious change. These can be roughly summarized as the influence of religion during the collapse of the communist societal system; the revitalization of religion and religiosity; a national/religious revival; an increase in the number of new religious movements; the politiciza- tion of religion and “religionization” of politics; and the as pirations of churches to regain positions they held in the pre-Communist period (Borowik, 1997, 1999; Hornsby-Smith, 1997; Robertson, 1989; Michel, 1999; Vrcan, 1999). In new social and political circumstances, the position of religion, churches, and religious people significantly changed as these institutions became increasingly present in public life and the media, as well as in the educational system. After a long period of being suppressed to the private sphere, they finally became publicly “visible”. The attitude of political structures, and society as a whole, towards religion and Churches was clearly reflected in institutional and legal arrangements and was thus reflected in the changed social position of religious communities. These phenomena, processes and tendencies can be recognized as elements of religious change in Croatia as well. This particularly refers to the dominant Catholic Church, whose public role and impor- tance in society significantly increased in the post-communist period. Several factors have been particularly influential in this respect: the openness and positive discourse of the leading political structures towards religion and particularly the Catholic Church;1 the activity 1 Between 1996 and 1998 the Republic of Croatia and The Holy See have regulated the status and activities of the Catholic Church in Croatia under the following international agreements: the Treaty on spiritual instruction of Catholic believers who are members of the armed forces and police services of the Republic of Croatia, the Treaty on co-operation in education and culture, the Treaty on legal issues, and the Treaty 308 dinka marinović jerolimov and boris jokić and the role of the Catholic Church in the struggle for the indepen- dence and international recognition of Croatia; the role and activity of the Catholic Church and other religious communities during and after the 1990–1995 war; and the accompanying national and religious homogenization. Although religious tradition has been reaffirmed as a part of cul- tural and social life in the new social and political circumstances, the revitalization of religion in Croatia did not occur through the rapid expansion of some form of religion à la carte, or religious bricolage. On the contrary, it has been developed within a framework of re-tradi- tionalisation, re-totalisation and re-collectivisation (Vrcan, 1999) and has resulted in a substantial increase of declared traditional church religiosity, especially Catholicism. This increase appeared to be the dominant characteristic of religious change in Croatia during the last decade of the 20th century. This change was evident in the 2001 Cen- sus, where 88% of Croatian citizens declared themselves as Catholics, as well as in religious research from 2004,2 where 89% of respondents declared themselves as Catholics, 78% stated themselves religious, 94% were baptized, 85% had first communion, 83% had a religious upbring- ing in the family, 82% believed in God and 27% regularly went to church (Marinović Jerolimov, 2005). These results confirmed the level of religiosity established during the 1990s amongst the adult and youth population as well (Črpić & Kušar, 1998; Marinović Jeroli mov, 1999, 2000; Zrinšćak, Črpić, & Kušar, 2000).3 The religious research efforts carried out in Croatia in the last two decades clearly indicate that youth express significantly greater religiosity after the 1990s than during communism. According to the com- parative analysis of research from 1986 and 1999,4 religious affiliation, religious self-identification, religious beliefs, and religious practice significantly increased amongst young people (Goja, 2000; Marinović on economic issues. Later, the Croatian Government signed the agreement on mutual interest with 13 other religious communities in 2002/2003. 2 This refers to the research Social and religious changes in Croatian society, carried out by the Institute for Social Research in 2004 on a representative sample (N=2220) of the Croatian adult population. 3 Although the differences between age groups are significantly smaller today, the confirmed pattern of increase in religiosity with aging is still evident. 4 This research was from the surveys Position, consciousness and behavior of youth in Croatia carried out in 1986 and Value system of youth and social changes in Croatia carried out in 1999, both by the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb..

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