The Small Religious Communities of Yugoslavia

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 3 Issue 6 Article 2 9-1983 The Small Religious Communities of Yugoslavia Rudolf Grulich Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Eastern European Studies Commons Recommended Citation Grulich, Rudolf (1983) "The Small Religious Communities of Yugoslavia," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 3 : Iss. 6 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol3/iss6/2 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. l THE SMALL RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES OF YUGOSLAVIA by Rudolf Grulich Th e Old Catholics Th e Croatian bishop Josip Jura j Stro ssmay er of Djakovo was th e most outspo ken oppon ent of th e dogma of papal infallibility at th e First Vatican Council , and also th e last bi shop to accept th e council 's decre es in 18 73, thr ee years aft er th e meet ing . Th ere was , how ever, no Old Catholic mov ement in th e Croatian dioc es es at that tim e, although th e situation was diff erent in th e German-sp eaking ar eas of middl e Europ e. This was becaus e the imp erial gov ernment in Vi enna was against th e Old Catholic mov ement . Neverth eless , th ere were circl es in Croatia dating from Strossmay er's tim e which had Old Catholic sympathi es. Only aft er th e First Wo rld Wa r was an Old Catholic Church abl e to exist in th e ki ngdom of Serbia , Croatia and Slov enia , which was found ed in 1918 . Similar to factions in Boh emia , groups of pri ests who were disappoint ed in th eir demands for church reforms , subs equ ently seceded from Rom e. Th eir new church was recogniz ed by th e stat e in 19 23, becaus e th e Old Catholics permitt ed divorc e, among oth er things , and this was an at traction to Catholics who were abl e to remarry in th e Church. In 19 24 th ese pri ests el ec ted th e form er canon of Split , Mar ko Kalog jera , as th eir bi shop . He was cons ecrat ed in th e Old Catholic cent er of Utr echt and led th e Croatian Old Catholic Church into the Union of Utr echt , th e Council of all th e Old Ca tholic church es. Church memb ership incr eas ed quic kl y . Just befor e th e Second Wo rld Wa r th ere were as many as 68 ,000 Old Catholic pa rishion ers in 23 parish es. Th e new church tri ed to align its elf with Stro ssmay er. "Ev en if th e Old Cathol ic Church organization exists among our peopl e dating from this year , it was actually found ed in 18 70 at th e tim e of th e so-call ed Vatican Council . Its first found er and champion was th e gr eat son of th e Croatian peopl e, th e national bishop Josip Jura j Strossmay er." This is what can be read in on e of th e proclamations of th e Old Catholic Church in 19 24 . It explains that only th e thr ea t of th e Emp eror Franz Jos eph had forc ed Strossmay er to capitulat e to Rom e, - 1 - si nce , co nsideri ng the good of the Croatia n people , Strossmayer wa nt ed no "bloody enemy of the Croatia ns" as his successor in the bishopric of Dj akovo . The Emperor would surely have appoi nt ed such a perso n had Strossmay er removed himself from the bi shopric . "The Croatia n Old Ca tholic Church is the realizatio n of the dream , the idea and the wishes of Bishop Strossmayer ," wrote the publication Preporod (R ebirth ] at that time about the church . This ne wspaper also published falsificatio ns of Cou ncil speeches made by Strossmayer , agai ns t which nu merous Catholic authors protested . As early as 1933 the first split of the Old Catholics in Yugoslavia took place. Stro ng oppos itio n to Kalogjera arose because of his ma chi na tio ns in co nnectio n with the remarriage of divorced people . Oppo ne nt s elected their ow n bi shop , who became a member of the Unio n of Ut recht , wh ich the n in tur n excluded Kalogjera. Next to the Croatia n Old Catholic Church (H rvatska starokatoli �ka crkva ] there was no w also a Croatia n Natio nal Old Catholic Church [H rvatska na rod na starokatoli cka crkva] . The ne wly elected bi shop ne ver received an exit visa to Ut recht and died in a co nce ntratio n camp in the Seco nd World War . In fact , the Old Catholics as a whole in the Indepe nde nt State of Croatia suffered ve ry greatly in the years betwee n 1941 and 1945 . Only in 19 74 did the Old Catholics reu nite. Until the n the Croatia n Old Catholic Church had an archbi shop in Zagreb , three churches, three parishes , four priests and a deaco n. The other Croatia n Old Catholic Church co nsisted of one bishop , three parishes , a si ngle church and four priests. Both churches publ ished mimeographed church ne wslette rs (S tarokatoli �ki Glas nik and Starokatolik respectively ]. Si nce the successful unificatio n, the ne wly na med co mmunity of Old Catholics , the Croatia n Catholic Church , co nsists of six parishes . In 1946 a Slove nia n Old Catholic Church [S love ns ka starokatoliska cerkev ] came into bei ng because of the state-ma ndated separation of the bi shop' s curacy in Slove nia . The seat of the bishopric is in Ljublja na. Under this bi shop are a church and two retreathouses , three parishes and an affiliated institutio n. In 1954 , a separate Old Catholic Church of Serbia and Vojvodi na (Starokatol i�ka Crkva Srbije i Vojvodi ne) was - 2 - fou nded with a seat in Belgrade . It has only three pa rishes . The Old Catholic Church for Bos nia and Hercegovi na , which origi nated in 1965, has only one pa rish. It is no t a member of the Ut re cht Unio n, no r does it belo ng to the unio n of the Old Catholic Church in the Socialist Federal Re public of Yugosla via [S avez starokatoli �kih crka va u SFRJ] . In spite of the Old Catholic Church 's appe al to the memory of Stros smayer (but al so to other defe nders of Croatia n inde pende nce from Rome , like the bi sho ps Gregor of Ni n and Ma rka nto nio de Domi nis) this de nomi na tion in Yugoslavia pr obably does no t exceed five or six thousa nd pe o pl e. The Pe ntecostals Accordi ng to its ow n figures , The Pe ntecostal Church in Yugoslavia nu mbers more tha n 5,000 members . Know n as the Pe ntecostal Church of Chri st in the SFRY [K ristova Pe ntekost na Crkva u SFR J] , it is one of the recog nized religious commu nities on federal soil . Aside from the Socialist Re publ ic of Mo nt enegro , the Pe ntecostals are re prese nted in all of the Yugoslav re publ ics . Seat of the church gover ning body is Zagreb , while the Secretariat is located in Novi Sad . The begi nni ng s of this church go back before the First World War , whe n religio nists in the Germa n po pulated area of Ba 6ka (in the Hu ngaria n pa rt of the em pire of the Da nu be mo narchy) attached themselves to the Pe ntecostal Mo veme nt. In the ne wly-created Yugoslavia in the year 1933 in the Prekmur ja area of Slove nia , a Pe ntecostal Church was fou nded whe n a Slove nia n woma n, who had emigrated to America and had jo ined a Pe ntecostal commu nity , retur ned with her Hu ngaria n husba nd, and bega n to wi n co nverts in her old home . In the year 1938 came the first est abl ishme nt of co ntact with other Pe ntecostal commu nities . After a sus pensio n of the church in the war , duri ng which the Pe ntecostals mo stly jo ined other Protesta nt co ngregatio ns, the church orga nized in Yugoslavia under the na me "Christia n Pe ntecostal Church in the Socialist Re publ ic of Yugloslavia ." It is divided accordi ng to re publ ic and has in additio n its ow n Ruma nia n grou p in Ba na t as well as a further grou p for the Hu ngaria n mi nority in the Backa . The nu mber of commu ni ties totals 73 : of those , 20 commu ni ties are in Croatia ; in Serbia , includi ng Vo jvodi na, there are 28 .

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