GAŠPER MITHANS The Italian Fascist regime, the Catholic Church and Protestant religious minorities in terre redente (1918–40)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30664/ar.80505 Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

his article explores the policies of discrimin­ called the Austrian Littoral) along the ation and oppression towards Protestant northern Adriatic after World War I, will Tcommunities in interwar Italy exercised by the state authorities and often incited by the be discussed based on a regional case study Catholic Church. In particular, the circumstances analysing the involvement of major actors in the multi-ethnic north-eastern region, the with a contextualization of the legal instru­ Julian March, are analysed in the context of so- ments and practices used.1 called Border Fascism. The Protestant Churches The relevance of the research issue in had had in the past a prevalently ethnic character, but with the annexation to Italy, their background this particular geo-political framework and had been in several cases either concealed or, time is multifarious. Few other regions of through migrations, Italians eventually became the world experienced such radical changes majorities. Another significant characteristic is of political structures and shifting borders. that Slovene and Croatian minorities only rarely adhered to Protestantism, other than the rela­ In 1797 this territory, previously part of tively few Seventh-day Adventists and ‘Fratelli’. the Venetian Republic, was assigned to the Based on the archival documents, oppressive Austrian Empire. A brief period of French actions of the Fascist authorities against Advent­ rule followed between the years 1805–9 ists in Trieste as a response to a complaint by the (Kingdom of Italy) and 1809–13 (Illyrian Catholic curia accusing them of proselytism are reconstructed. The investigations and harass­ Provinces), while the Congress of Vienna ments of Adventists show all basic similarities to (1814/15) consolidated the borders of the the episodes of oppression against certain Prot­ Austrian Littoral for approximately one estant minorities in other parts of Italy, while the century (Grandits 2018: 21–3; Žitko 2016: nationality of their members was a crucial factor in determining why of all minority religions, aside 61–2; Žitko 1999: 577–8). The territory from the Jewish, it was this community which identified as the birthplace of the concept experienced the most oppressive police treat­ of irredentism, the political action that ment in the Julian March region. aggravated the relationship between Italian Historical context The implementation of oppressive state 1 The author acknowledges that the research policies and measures, largely towards project ‘Antifascism in the Julian March Protestant minorities in the new terri­ in Transnational Perspective, 1919–1954’ (J6-9356) in the scope of which this article tories that Italy gained from the dissolved is published, has been financially supported Habsburg monarchy (mainly the region by the Slovenian Research Agency.

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 57 and Slavic populations as early as the nine­ Giulia, Slo. and Cro. Julijska krajina) to teenth century; Italians demanding that the Italy, although the majority of its popula­ region with its significant Italian minority tion were ethnic­ally Slovenians and Croats. be incorporated into Italy (Hametz 2012: Much of these lands, that in the interwar 32; Wörsdörfer 2009: 16). The 1920 Rapallo period were comprised of the province of Treaty assigned the area that became Gorizia, Trieste, Pula and Rijeka (the latter known as the Julian March (It. Venezia since 1924), were of Venetian historical

The changing borders between Italy and Yugoslavia/Slovenia in the 20th century. Herigona, 29.12.2009. Wikimedia Commons.

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 58 Wikimedia Commons provenance: hence, the name terre redente (‘redeemed lands’). However, in the after­ math of WWI, the time of social crises pro­ vided an opportun­ity for inhabitants with pro-Italian nationalist agendas to substan­ tially influence public opinion, increasing at least the noise of dissatisfaction with the new border that did not include all territories promised by the Allies to Italy in the Treaty of London (1915). The feel­ ing of vittoria mutilata (‘mutilated vic­ tory’) and the so-called culture of defeat (see Schivelbusch 2003) were especi­ ally evident in this multicultural border­ Fascists burning down the Slovenian National land, which became the place of one of the Home and Hotel Balkan in Trieste, 1920. first violent Fascist acts directed towards the Slovenian and Croatian minority; for example, the squadrists’ attack on the of Trieste (1947–54) that divided part of Yugoslav consulate in Trieste and the arson the former Julian March into Italian and that destroyed the Slovenian National Yugoslav administration zones. In 1954 Home (Kacin Wohinz and Verginella the area was divided between Italy and 2008: 17–28; Pirjevec 2016; Gerwarth and Yugoslavia, while it was only the Treaty of Horne 2012: 4). Consequently, the first Osimo in 1975/7 which finally settled the anti-Fascist and other previously anti-Ital­ border that has remained intact following ian movements also emerged in the Julian the split of Yugoslavia and today divides the March; Slovenians and Croatians particu­ historical region among three countries. larly acting in opposition to the intensify­ The exploration of the cooperation ing Fascist policy of a forced assimilation between two institutions with similar inter­ of (never recognised) national minorities ests but different motives in relation to that openly supported inclusion into the religious minorities – the Fascist regime territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Catholic Church – in the Julian (‘Slavic irredentism’) (Kacin Wohinz and March, compared to other parts of Italy, Verginella 2008: 24). This severe Fascist to some extent depicts certain particularit­ policy was based on the conviction that the ies. This is due primarily to the special region must be annexed to the rest of Italy regional policy (‘Border Fascism’) towards as soon as possible and to that end it should the Slovenian and Croatian Catholic clergy be politically controlled and ethnically and also frequent suspicions of the anti- homogenized to blend in with the rest of regime activities of certain Catholic and the nation (Klabjan 2018: 991). The border Protestant groups, mostly but not solely remained a major issue after World War II. based on national affiliation rather than Between the years 1945 and 1947 the insti­ religion. The viewpoints will be examined tution of Zone A and Zone B of the Julian through the archival and other sources of March was introduced under Allied and the state (predominantly the archives of Yugoslav military administration, followed the police and the prefecture) and Church by the establishment of the Free Territory archives covering the interwar period and

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 59 the months following Italy’s declaration of Italy, especially in the 1930s. In Rijeka war on the Allies on 10 June 1940, which Protestantism was until 1918 mostly linked exhibit a clear discourse of exclusion, with with the Hungarian and German com­ references to a ‘freely interpreted’ concor­ munities, but, as would be expected, this dat and relevant laws. ethnic character was gradually lost with The matter of religious minorities under emigration, Waldensian evangelism and the Fascist regime during the interwar the Fascist policy of national unification. In period in the region of the Julian March has this sense we can understand that the larger been scantily researched, with the exception ‘Hungarian’ Reformed Church and smaller of the repression of Jews after the introduc­ ‘German’ Lutheran Church affiliated with tion of the Italian Racial Laws (by authors the ‘Italian’ Waldensian Church in 1921 such as Bettin 2007; De Felice 2001; Bon to strengthen their position as Protestant 2000; Podbersič 2016). Although the vast Churches, while it was at the same time a majority of the population in Italy2 and the sign of a compromise, endorsing ‘Italian’ northern Adriatic were Catholic, including Protestantism. Likewise, in Opatija, the in the borderland’s major centres, they dis­ ‘German’ Evangelical Lutheran Church in played religious diversity in the nineteenth 1920 was affiliated with the Waldensian century and even before that. In interwar Church. In Pula the ‘German’ Evangelical Trieste several Protestant communities Church of Augustan and Helvetic confes­ were allowed to operate. The Evangelical sion closed in 1919, but in the same year Lutheran Church with a Germanophone the Italian Methodist Episcopalian Church ethnic background and the Swiss Reformed was opened. The merger also happened Church had been present continuously in Gorizia, where a once strong German since the eighteenth century; the Anglican Evangelical Church of Augustan and Church was founded in the first half of the Helvetic confession was mostly dissolved, nineteenth century; the Methodist Church while their premises were taken over by the with Italian character formed in the late ‘Italian’ Methodist Church in 1922 (Carrari nineteenth century; while the Waldensian 2002: 143–54; Gottardi 1993: 81, 98, 101–3; Evangelical Church, also with typically Rajšp 2018: 11–40). Italian followers, was constituted in the Moreover, the scholarship has mostly area only after World War I. The latter was overlooked the position and role of affiliated to the Reformed Church in 1927. Protestants within and in relation to the Of the unpermitted religious commu­ movements that the Fascist regime gen­ nities, the Adventist Church was peculiar erated during the interwar era (particu­ due to its majority Slovenian membership, larly different modes of resistance). We can while the position of the Salvation Army assume that the major reason for this lies was uncertain, as it was in other parts of in the predominant representation of anti- Fascists as Slavic (Slovenian and Croatian) 2 Only approximately 135,000 people in Italy and/or communist, while most Protestants were Protestants in 1911, while 42 mil­ were of Italian, German and Hungarian lion were Catholic. In 1932 Mussolini was origin. Furthermore, Jews were predomin­ convinced that the number of Protestants antly Italophone. Protestant groups were stayed the same, adding that 37,000 of them were foreigners; however the Protestants indeed rarely involved in active resist­ were in fact fewer at that time (Piccioli ance. However, acts of symbolic defi­ 2003: 497; Spini 2007: 147). ance occurred; for example with religious

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 60 conversions from Catholicism, which on the Prevention of Discrimination and were considered as a break with the sup­ Protection of Minorities – that is to say, posed Italian national unity that required they are numerically inferior to the rest of adherence to the Catholic faith; besides, all the population of a state, in a non-domin­ Protestants were subjected to police surveil­ ant position,4 and exhibit some distinctive lance and some individuals and even entire subjective and objective markers based on religious communities were suppressed. self and other identifications (see Jackson- Preece 2014: 5; Vizi 2013). Furthermore, The legal regulation of non-Catholic these identities, especially self-ascribed, religious communities in Italy should not be considered as fixed, but rather Minority rights are often perceived to have mutable, overlapping, multiple, heterogen­ been the product of the World War I peace eous and primarily time/place contingent. treaties, but in fact they have a much longer Henceforth the possibility of changing reli­ history in international law. During the gious affiliation (Mithans 2016b) and even interwar period the protection of minor­ities national identification (for ‘hybrid iden­ was more of an international power play tity’ see Ballinger 2003), forced assimila­ and applied to new and defeated states only, tion processes, mechanisms to restrain while the systems and practices created for believers from leaving religious commu­ their implementation under the League of nities and the belief that one is ‘born into Nations were defunct (Gilbert 1999: 397, religion’ (cf. Jakelić 2010), all from different 406, 409). Thus the Italian state authorities, aspects illustrate the intersubjective char­ in line with their unification and assimi­ acter of a minority (and majority) identity lation polities, did not formally recognise (cf. Jackson-Preece 2014: 10). any type of minority status in the coun­ The Fascist regime’s treatment of minor­ try (Pelikan 2013: 314). Accordingly, the ity religions in Italy was, unsurprisingly, national, ethnic and religious ‘minorities’ deeply dependent on the state of the rela­ had very limited rights3 and the reference tionship between the representatives of the to these entities applied to non-Italian and/ majority nation and majority religion. That or non-Catholic groups that were at state- was particularly the case when relating to level minorities per se. No convention or the Protestant communities, given their treaty on minority rights has ever included ‘traditional’ antagonisms with the Catholic an explicit definition which clearly identi­ Church. fies holders of minority rights; however the The legislative frames and with that ‘minority’ groups in question are consistent the means to justify structural violence, with Francesco Capotorti’s approximation mostly police and state violence based on of a generally applicable authoritative def­ ethnocentrism and (Catholic) religiocen­ inition of a minority proposed in a study trism, directed towards Protestants and prepared for the UN Sub-Commission other minority religions and groups (see Kamouzis 2017) considerably changed

3 Rights for national ‘minorities’ were mostly linguistic, including those cited in the 4 A numerical minority can also be domin­ Lateran ­Treaty, which stated that priests ant, especially, but not exclusively, in the not fluent in the ‘local language’ could get context of colonialism and even post- a coadjutor (Mercati 1954). However, this colonial­ism, and refers to religious minor­ clause was circumvented in practice. ities as well.

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 61 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia

Signing of The Lateran Pacts, 1929.

in 1929 with the introduction of two key over Catholic Action. legal acts – the Lateran Pacts and the Law However, the royal decree n. 289 of Allowed Religions n. 1159 (la legge sui (28.2.1930), that was to implement the law culti ammessi n. 1159). The Lateran Treaty of the previous year, showed that the law explicitly acknowledged the Catholic primarily provided a system suitable for Church in Italy as the state religion and guaranteeing political control and extensive represents Mussolini’s approval of the pol­ interference with faiths other than Catholic itics of re-confessionalization. The Law through a series of considerable restrictions of Allowed Religions, which due to the on the freedom of religion. Regulations absence of a general law on religious free­ were especially restrictive regarding open­ dom, is still in force today, was on the other ing new temples or oratories. The pros­ hand at first reasonably well accepted by elytising activities of non-Catholics were the Protestants, as the legislative context constrained. Moreover, the members of a in which the confrontation between the so-called permitted or allowed religious Catholic Church and Protestant religious community could hold ‘public meetings’ communities that took place changed from in places of worship only on condition tolerated to allowed (Spini 2007: 127–30; that they were presided over or author­ Rochat 1990: 124–47). The Catholic bishops­ ized by a religious official approved by the protested against the law, convinced that it Minister of the Interior. However, accord­ obstructed the regulations in the Lateran ing to article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Pacts (Perin 2011: 154–65; Zanini 2015: Public Security, a meeting, although held 691). Indeed the Law of Allowed Religions in a private form, could also be considered was also an instrument of the regime public due to the place where it was held, intended to remind the Catholic officials the number of people present, or the pur­ not to take their privileges for granted and pose or subject of the meeting. The police must be interpreted in the context of the practice applied this last provision to reli­ conflict between the Pope and Mussolini gious meetings of non-Catholics in private

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 62 places, forbidding and dissolving by force central and northern Italy. This is the reason those meetings not authorized. This was for the fixation of the leading members a serious breach of basic religious rights of the Catholic Church with Waldensian, when even worship at home could thus be Baptist and especially Methodist proselyt­ denied (Madonna 2016: 13–14).5 ism (Zanini 2015: 690; cf. Moro 1998: The legal order of treatment of reli­ 45–63). The Fascist authorities, however, gious communities by the state had in fact had already started their aggression against four levels: the Catholic Church, with the Pentecostals in 1925, and the oppression Concordat, regained the position of an only intensified in the following years. established Church in Italy; some minor­ In April 1927, the regime’s cam­ ity religions permitted by the state had a paign against the Protestant commu­ special juridical status (e.g., Waldensians, nities stepped up further when Arturo Baptists, Methodists, Orthodox Christians, Bocchi­­ni, Mussolini’s Chief of Police and Jews, etc.), while all other religious commu­ the head of the Italian secret political nities that did not make an agreement with police, OVRA, instructed the prefects in the state were subjected to the common law each province to provide him with regu­ and were most vulnerable to attacks (Jews lar reports on their activities and mem­ excluded, for their status did not make bership, beginning regular surveillance of them ‘invulnerable’). Finally, there were Protestant groups throughout Italy (Davis also the banned religious communities. 2010: 66; Spini 2007: 137–50). Especially However, it would be false to assume from 1938 onwards, with the introduc­ that such a policy was limited to Italy or tion of the Racial Laws and the beginning characteristic only of Fascist and proto- of the war, a climate of distrust resulted Fascist regimes, as similar practices and in frequent police reports being filed by legislation were extant in countries without anonymous informers, civilians, volunteer­ authoritarian and/or totalitarian regimes. ing to improve the efficiency of state sur­ In particular, commonalities can be veillance, making numerous accusations noticed in cases of the treatment of banned against Jews, Pentecostals, and other reli­ and unrecognised Christian commu­ gious minorities (Fonio 2011: 87). In par­ nities throughout interwar Europe (Kapaló ticular, they collected detailed information 2019).6 on jobs, incomes, and behaviours and atti­ tudes towards the regime (Franzinelli 2001: Anti-Protestant repercussions 141). For the most part, the root causes of In the 1920s Catholics perceived the the denunciations were ideological hate, ‘Protestant danger’ as an indistinct entity, competition in business, and/or mere per­ and primarily they opposed the prolifer­ sonal dislike (Fonio 2011: 87). ation of that ‘heresy’ among the citizens of Strengthened by the climate created by the 1929 Lateran Pacts, Catholic priests and bishops requested the involvement of state 5 ASTs, 3242 Prefettura di Trieste. The cir­ authorities in the defence of the Catholic cular letter of the Ministry of the Interior, faith (Scoppola 1973: 331–94; Davis 2010: 31.3.1931. 66–70). Subsequently in the 1930s hostility 6 Cf. Đurić Milovanović 2017: 449; AJ 69, 309 Vojislav Janjić, The Minister for Reli­ towards the religious minorities increased, gious Affairs to all mayors of Belgrade. Bel­ usually due to the fear of anti-Fascist/anti- grade, 5.5.1924. Italian sentiments of their representatives

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 63 as perceived by the state authorities. The interwar years in Italy, based on and incited suspicions the regime harboured towards by the idea of exaltation of the national any minority, religious or otherwise, which value of the unity of faith propagated by maintained international ties, was com­ Fascism, we cannot in fact speak of persecu- bined with a general prejudice regarding tion prior to 1939. Only the years of the war the populace and their capacity for self- would clearly show that in those legal acts determination (Rochat 1990: 74–5; Zanini was concealed a wide scope for administra­ 2015: 692). Not only did many Protestant tive intervention according to the changing Churches preserve contacts across borders, political directions (Scoppola 1973: 346; many pastors were educated outside Italy; Rochat 1990: 241–74). and to varying degrees almost all were The exception were the Pentecostals. A funded from abroad, usually by the USA real change in attitude towards Pentecostal­ (Rochat 1990: 17–20). That raised addi­ ism occurred between 1933 and 1934, and tional suspicions, especially with further on 9 April 1935 the Pentecostal denomin­ German-Italian rapprochement and when ation was banned on the grounds that its World War II finally broke out. rites had proved ‘harmful to the physical While permitted denominations were and mental health of the people’ (Scoppola tolerated, their activities were in great part 1973: 359). This shift in opinion occurred expelled from the public sphere. Their during the third phase of interwar Catholic ‘religious propaganda’ – proselytizing and anti-Protestantism, according to Renato public expressions of religious belief – was Moro, following the national anti-Protes­ strongly opposed by the Catholic Church7 tantism of the 1920s with hostility towards and often also by the Fascist militia (see Protestants as foreigners, and the phase of Scoppola 1973: 352–63). The Vatican went national religion and national-Catholic ide- so far as to request control over the mis­ ology in the years between 1929 and 1933, sionary activities of Waldensians and other marked by hostility towards Protestants as Protestants in newly acquired territories in enemies of religious peace in relation to the Africa (Bosworth 2006: 258). Nevertheless, Catholic Church and the state during the the civil administration in some disputes time of serious crisis over the question of acted as a protector of the rights of religious Italian Catholic Action and its autonomy in minorities, particularly Protestants, against 1931. The third phase of Catholic Fascism the pressures of the Catholic Church of the mid-1930s, with hostility towards aligned with Fascist militia (Scoppola 1973: Protestants who were considered as anti- 339; Viallet 1985). Italian (Moro 2003: 318), were years of a It is important to point out that while convergence between the Catholic Church surveillance and intimidation of Protestant and the regime that lasted until 1938. groups was part of the everyday life in the The Salvation Army was another reli­ gious group that was dissolved by the Fascist authorities, by means of a provi­ 7 The Vatican even published and sent to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs a book­ sion dated 17 August 1940. In 1939 and let titled Il proselitismo dei protestanti in 1940 the oppression of Jehovah’s Witnesses Italia (‘Protestant Proselytism in Italy’) and reached its peak, when OVRA began perse­ the question of ‘religious propaganda’ was cuting Jehovah’s Witnesses in a more ‘effi­ discussed in the only meeting between the Pope and the Duce on 11 February 1932 cient’ way than even Pentecostals (Rochat (Scoppola 1973: 340–2). 1990: 229–39).

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 64 Complaints against several religious people of those origins) remained, as well minorities after 1938 and especially with as around 190,000 Germanophone South the entrance of Italy into the war, were fol­ Tyroleans. Depictions of ‘Slavs’ as ‘barbar­ lowed by much more hostile measures than ians’ that would happily accept the author­ previously: premises were seized under the ity of the ‘descendants of the great Rome’ laws of war, oratories were closed, and per­ and assimilate were common misrepre­ missions granted to particular religious sentations of the time, based on myths and officials were revoked (Scoppola 1973: false national identity based concepts of 352–5; cf. Rochat 1990: 256–330). italianità and romanità (see Visintin 2000: 79–95; Vinci 2004: 30–1). However, at the Protestant communities in the Julian March same time mistrust of the same people The issue of religious minorities on the one intensified after a prolifer­ation of resistance hand evolved differently within the con­ movements, conditioning the responses of text of so-called ‘Border Fascism’ (see Vinci the police, intelligence services and militias. 2011) in the Julian March than they did at In regard to the concept of ‘minority’ in the state level, while on the other hand the this geographical setting, it is important to overall pattern was strikingly similar. point out that Slovenians and Croatians in In comparison with the other Italian this region were in fact a numer­­ic­al ‘major­ provinces, Fascism in the Julian March suc­ ity’, although not in the major cities, and con­ ceeded in thriving very early on by pene­ sequently they possessed limited politic­al trating into already long-lasting social and and economic power. Furthermore, few especially national disputes that the war of the members of the religious minorities only intensified. Fascism in the border were ‘Slavs’. It is significant, though, that region was determined by the ‘defence of many of the Catholic bishops and archbish­ the state border’, accompanied by strong ops were Slovenians and Croatians – in the aggression towards external and intern­al interwar period gradually substituted by an enemies. Francesco Giunta, an Italian Italian ecclesiastical hierarchy. statesperson and leading politician in the In the context of relations between the early years of Fascism, who helped to build religious communities and the state in the Fascist movement in several regions of this border region where the religion of Italy and was particularly active in Trieste the majority was not a divisive factor but and the surrounding cities, persisted in nationality/ethnicity very much was, the declaiming that the uprising must start in Fascist authorities wanted to prevent the the Julian March (Vinci 2004: 32). In this regional Catholic clergy, and especi­­ally the region Fascism was confronted with the as hierarchy, from interfering in the process yet unfamiliar social, cultural and politic­al of ethnic assimilation of the Slovenian and circumstances of the ex-Austro-Hungar­ian Croatian minorities. To that end, in col­ territories populated by Italians, Slovenians, laboration with the Holy See the approach Croatians, Friulians, Germans, Hungarians of apostolic visitations had been used that and other nations and ethnic­ities. The produced reports based on ungrounded enlarged state for the first time had to deal accusations, which led to the forced res­ with sizeable national minorities (Pelikan ignations of the last Slovenian archbishop 2013: 314). After the introduction of new of Gorizia, Frančišek B. Sedej in 1931 and borders in the Kingdom of Italy, 350,000 of the bishop of Trieste and Koper Luigi Slovenians and 150,000 Croatians (or Fogar in 1936. The latter was a Friulian

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 65 Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia

Lutheran Church in Trieste around the year 1900. Ed. Vierbücher, Milano.

who displayed sympathies towards nation­ The great majority of Protestants in ­al minorities (Pelikan 2013: 314–15).8 Trieste, Gorizia, Pula and Opatija were of More­­over, restrictions on the use of the Italian or German background; in Rijeka Slo­­venian and Croatian languages in the they were also of Hungarian origin. In Catholic churches as the last ‘bastions’ the aftermath of WWI, the Julian March where these languages were allowed to be was a place where central European Prot­ spoken in public increased in the 1930s estantism encountered Italian and Swiss and in parishes near Trieste their use was Protestantism, reducing and merging the banned (Pelikan 2002: 302; Mithans 2016a: differences based on language and cus­ 758–60). toms. However, already at the time of the Let us dwell on some characteristic Austrian Empire it was quite common for insights of the communities in major cities the Evangelicals not to strictly divide the – in more detail the Seventh-day Adventists community according to Augustan and in Trieste as a religious community that, Helvetic rites in part for practical reasons, besides the Jewish one, suffered direct with the exception of Trieste, the largest oppression in the Julian March, while sev­ city in the region. eral other religious minorities experienced The main Protestant communities were discrimination. situated in Trieste, which was also the seat of the Seniority, which in 1863 comprised Protestant parishes in Trieste, Gorizia, Ljubljana, Maribor and Venice (the latter 8 Cf. AJ, 373, 1 General consulate of the King­ until 1866), and other communities that dom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes [SHS] in Trieste to the Embassy of the Kingdom of evolved in the region in the following years SHS to the Holy See, 12.3.1928. (e.g., Pula, Rijeka, Opatija). The Lutheran

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 66 Church was established in 1778 by German well, which was disproved by the police. settlers; the Swiss Reformed Church built The surveillance of the Protestant Churches their own church in 1785, where the ser­ continued according to Bocchini’s order, vice during the interwar period was taken but no particular information that would in Italian and once a month in German, trouble the authorities was found. The ‘sus­ while before the war it was only in German. picious behaviour’ of Protestants in the The third oldest Protestant Church was the Julian March was thus especially in the Anglican community, which was founded 1920s mostly related to their (supposed) in 1830, but ceased to exist after World involvement in Freemasonry. Although War II. Characteristic of Trieste was larger some individuals were suspected to have number of Italian speaking Protestants; anti-Fascist sentiments because they were, amongst them there were also Methodists according to the police, Freemasons, among who had been present in the city since the them the Methodist pastors Umberto late nineteenth century, and Waldensians Ghetti from Pula and Felice Dardi from as newcomers who in 1927 affiliated with Trieste, further investigation showed they the Reformed Church9 (Patzelt 1999: 45, were not politically engaged anymore and 159–66; Carrari 2002: 143–54; Rajšp 2018: no measures were then taken. In the case 14). The unpermitted Adventist Church of Pastor Dardi, suspicion was also directed with its majority Slovenian membership at him because of some public meetings stood out, as will be illustrated in the sub­ he held, which, however, turned out to sequent section. be merely a reunion of Methodist pastors As presumably several Protestants in (Carrari 2002: 158).10 Even though several Trieste were members of Masonic lodges, Protestant communities in the Julian March organisations that were banned in 1925 by had a prevalently non-Italian ethnic char­ the state authorities due to their supposed acter, such as German speaking Lutherans, anti-Fascism, in 1927 the prefect of Trieste Hungarian Reformed Evangelicals, as well raised the alarm that Protestant Churches as Anglicans, and were surveilled, they were were taking cautious anti-Fascist action usually not considered dangerous to the through their dependent institutions as regime.11 Likewise, the Catholic Church

9 According to the data of the questura 10 ASTs, 11511 The letter of the Prefect of Tri­ of Trieste, in 1929 there were approxi­ este to the Public Attorney. Trieste, 5.4.1930. mately 600 Lutherans, 200 Reformed, 150 11 The Greek and Serbian Orthodox commu­ Waldensians, fewer than 100 Methodists, nities present in Trieste, Rijeka and Peroj and 80 Anglicans in Trieste (Carrari 2002: near Pula were in a similar position (ASTs, 156–7), the estimated number of Adven­ 3242 Prefettura di Trieste, Comunità gre­ tists in Trieste and its suburban area in co-orientale, The certificate attesting that 1940 was around 180 (ADT, 1940/40 Pro­ the activities of the Greek Orthodox Church paganda protestante. Priest of S. Antonio in Trieste are solely religious, beneficial and Taumaturgo to the Office of the Bishop of educational. Trieste, 9.2.1937). ASTs, 3242 Trieste and Koper. Trieste, 5.3.1940; ADT, Letter of the Ministry of the Interior, Gen­ 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. The Priest eral Directorate for Religions, to the Pre­ of Servola to the Office of the Bishop of fect of Trieste. Rome, 3.6.1941; ACVCVTs, Trieste­­ and Koper. Trieste, 10.2.1940). The Prefecture to the Evangelical Community number of Lutherans and Reformed signifi­ of Helvetic Confession recognising its cantly decreased, as in 1923 there were still ‘Italian character’ and thus considering it around 1200 Lutherans and 580 Reformed as an institution under public law. Trieste, (Patzelt 1999: 161). 7.10.1924.

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 67 Wikimedia Commons was more tolerant towards Protestant groups that did not proselytize outside their minority ethnic communities (Rochat 1990: 20, 144–5) than towards those that did, for example Adventists or Pentecostals. Yet the dissolved Lutheran and Reformed community in Gorizia in the 1920s decided rather not to ask for permission to hold their religious service in German on a regu­ lar basis, expecting political resistance at a time when the regime was already plan­ ning to gradually supress Catholic worship The inhabitants of Rijeka/Fiume cheering in Slovenian, and their pastor had already D‘Annunzio and his raiders, 1920. Edward Alexander Powell, The New Frontiers of Free­ been subject to police interrogation (Patzelt dom from the Alps (Project Gutenberg). 1999: 230–40). For many of these commu­ nities the situation worsened with the com­ mencement of World War II; and in the especially at the organisational level, with case of religious communities associated the Waldensian Church in Italy join­­- with the UK such as the Salvation Army. ing and sharing facilities with the Evan­ to some extent already in 1935 with British gelical community in Rijeka in 1921, the opposition to the war in Ethiopia. same as a year before with the Lutheran Some consolidation in the form of com­munity in Opatija (Gottardi 1993: early ‘ecumenism’ or ‘pan-Christian ideas’ 75–7, 97) and in 1927 the Reformed among Evangelicals of Helvetic confes­ Church in Trieste. sion, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans and In Rijeka the interethnic and intercon­ Serbian Orthodox, excluding the Cath­­- fessional Evangelical community, autono­ o­lics,12 emerged in Trieste as a re­­sponse to mous since 1890, united the Evangelical the attacks by the latter mostly in the press and Reformed Churches. The community and by the members of Catholic Action. changed its name after World War I, first Protestant communities in Trieste and else­ to the United Reformed and Evangelical where also experienced pressure from the Church of Augustan confession in 1921, state authorities, evidenced for example by then to the Christian Evangelical Reformed difficulties in organizing religious educa­ (Waldensian) Church, and finally in 1933 tion for children (Carrari 2002: 148–151), just to the Evangelical Church. The major­ while their buildings had usually been ity, over 60 per cent, of adherents belonged restricted to more concealed locations even to the Reformed Church and the commu­ in the past (Gottardi 1993: 127). The collab­ nity had, until the end of World War I, a orations were in fact much more profound, Hungarian ethnic character that was mar­ ginally maintained.13 Like most other 12 One such ‘interdenominational’ event was Protestant communities with German and the reopening of the San Silvestro church Hungarian believers that were affected (the Evangelical Church of Helvetic Con­ fession and Waldensian Church) in 1928. The Catholic Bishop Fogar was invited, 13 In 1931, the whole community consisted of but he courteously declined the invitation 480 followers and 90 children (Patzelt 1999: (Carrari­ 2002: 149). 229).

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 68 by the emigration of their flock, the com­ believers joined the Methodist Church. munity transformed into a congregation Henceforth it was the second community with majority Italian adherents. Close of the Seniority of Trieste (after the one in by, in Opatija, in the Evangelical Church Pula), as Patzelt states, to not only de jure, of Augustan and Helvetic confession, but also de facto dissolve. The Methodist established in 1908, Lutherans prevailed. priest Pio Armati, who was friendly toward According to the joining agreement with the German Evangelicals, proposed the the Waldensians, the religious service and unification of the two communities under religious study had to be held in German the name ‘Italian Evangelical Methodist at least every two weeks (Gottardi 1993: Episcopalian Church’, but this was rejected 75–85, 81, 96–8; Patzelt 1999: 225). by the German Evangelical Presbytery. The Lutheran and Reformed Evangelical The temporary existence of the dissolved community in Pula was founded as a filial remaining community was still pos­sible to Trieste in 1866, gained independence because of the good relationship with in 1872, and was disbanded in 1919. The pastor Armati, despite the fear on the part new Protestant community of around 100 of the Methodists that their pastor would people, the Italian Methodist Episcopalian consolidate German believers and weaken Church, which ‘took their place’, was in the Methodist community. The pressure some sort of ‘ecumenical’ spirit com­ of the Methodist Church hierarchy on the prised of several ‘denominations’: Baptists, rest of the Lutherans and Reformed com­ Methodists, Waldensians, Adventists and munities intensified through the interwar Pentecostals. The pastor, Bartolomeo period and with the prohibition on using Cassano, who arrived in the city in 1927 not their church the already very shaken co- only succeeded in keeping such a heter­­- existence was finally broken (Patzelt 1999: o­geneous community united and active, he 230–40). also managed to ensure that the city was We can observe a familiar pattern that aware of its presence and its activity, over­ in the border region between Italy and coming the constant mild oppressive acts Yugoslavia, Croats and Slovenians had not by the Catholic clergy under the fascist formed ‘older’ Protestant communities regime. His preaching had an anti-Cath­ even though on the mainland there existed olic accent. He often took the opportunity majority Croatian and Slovenian Protestant to challenge the worship of the Virgin Mary communities but were likewise mostly of and the saints on the days of the Catholic ‘foreign’ ethnic character. feasts. Gradually it became a community truly open to everyone, even to occasional Oppression of unpermitted Protestant passers-by (Gottardi 1993: 103). communities in the Julian March In Gorizia the Evangelical Church of When discussing the issues of oppressed Augustan and Helvetic confession was religious minorities in the Julian March, established in 1861 by new German set­ three smaller and rather marginal Pro­t­­- tlers. After WWI, this weakened Evan­ estant denominations should be men­ gelical community of only around 100 tioned. The Salvation Army, an evangelical remaining followers was not able to rebuild movement and organisation, had a hall in their church, damaged during the war, Trieste. Considering their characteristics, so in 1919 they rented it out and in 1922 such as a profoundly British appearance sold it to Italian Methodists. Some of the and direct dependence on London, their

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 69 paramilitary character, and that they were of the returned’, more a phenomenon of the only religious entity in Italy that allowed Pentecostal circles (Gottardi 1993: 164– women to become preachers, it was almost 7). Their ethnic background made them, inevitable that the Fascist regime would as in the case of Slovenian Adventists, a eventually perceive them to be a threat or at ‘double minority’ (cf. Măran and Đurić- least enough of a nuisance they would need Milovanović 2015: 87) – that is, a religious to be moved against in some fashion. After and a national ‘Other’. a period of tension and temporary closures The third group, the Adventists, were that caused a degree of diplomatic conflict for the most part relatively well tolerated between Italy and the UK, a disbanding of by the authorities in other parts of Italy, the Salvationists when the war began in but stand out due to state oppression and Italy was expected (Rochat 1990: 229–39). the opposition of the Catholic Church in At the end of 1940 a police report stated: the Julian March. In Trieste the commu­ ‘Apparently the activities of adherents of nity was formed in 1925. There is not much Protestantism are not in any contradiction information on the early years of the com­ to the directives of the Regime. Besides the munity’s existence in the city of Trieste religious sect “The Salvation Army” that and the countryside between Trieste and was dissolved recently, no other pseudo- Koper until the year 1939 when an inter­ religious sects in this district seem to have nal crisis emerged, while at the same time an anti-national background.’14 the community experienced increased The second group, again of non-Ital­ police oppression that nearly put an end ian ethnic affiliation in Opatija, was the to the church (Rochat 1990: 187; Carrari Evangelical Christian Church of the Breth­ 2002: 152). To elaborate, in the border­ ren, the so-called Fratelli. Brethren were land, enforced Italianization made the repressed all over Italy and destined for Catholic Church and Fascist regime more clandestine work. In the Julian March they apprehensive of any form of ‘disturbance’. were present also in Trieste, Monfalcone, Therefore, the Adventist Church, with Piran, Gorizia and Oslavia. A small com­ its Slovenian character, was a more likely munity existed in Opatija, from 1928, sus­ target of denunciations and police surveil­ tained by the preacher Alfredo Veneziani lance. Moreover, some Adventist publica­ from Trieste and Ivan Puz, an emigrant tions were printed in Yugoslavia after this convert from the USA. They were ethnic­ denomination had been prohibited there in ally Croats and held unpermitted religious 192415 and brought to Italy, which caused community meetings at the private house of one of the believers. To ‘exorcise’ this 15 E.g., Glasnik: organ Zajednice jugosloven­ ‘prayer house’, the Catholic parish priest skih adventista (‘Herald: Organ of the Yugo­ made sure to place, during a procession, slav Adventist Community’), publisher and a statue of the Virgin Mary on the gate of editor-in-chief N. Slankamenac [Adventist the house opposite. The community was minister in Belgrade, added by the author], 1926–19??; Ellen Gould Harmon White, also known as ‘the religion of Puz’ and Stradanje Isusovo za spasenje čovječanstva is a clear example of the ‘evangelisation (‘The Sufferings of Christ,1869 ’), (Naklad­ no­ društvo G. Šašić i komp., 1927). Besides, Adventists also organised conferences in 14 AS 1829, 31, 575 Report on political and 1925 and 1931 in Serbian and Croatian economic conditions in the province of parts of the country and their Publishing Trieste. Trieste, 23.12.1940. House was named Izdavačka knjižara ‘Pre­ porod’. Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 70 further suspicion (Rochat 1990: 187; Sala the police measures became more aggres­ 1974: 37–41). sive towards the Adventists soon after Italy In the second half of the 1930s the joined the war, as did further accusations police in Trieste (questura) received a by the Catholic priest. Because many of the couple of reports produced by the Catholic Adventists were Slovenians, the authorities curia condemning Adventists for ‘religious considered them more likely to collaborate propaganda’; mostly dissemination of their with the enemies, although Yugoslavia was periodicals, and investigated the matter not yet involved in the war. The priest from according to their wishes (Sala 1974: 40).16 Servola correctly predicted in his letter of In January 1940, a Slovenian Catholic priest August 1940 that ‘the civil authority will from the suburban parish of Servola sent a do much more [than before Martial law complaint against the small Adventist com­ was imposed on 27 July 1940 – added by munity of 30 to 40 followers to the Bishop’s the author] because the sect takes advan­ Office in Trieste, which triggered a chain of tage of the war by paying the poor people events unfavourable to this small Protestant to join their flock; they draw children into community.17 In response, the Bishop’s their midst while their fathers perhaps shed Office ordered a report on the activities of their blood for their country.’20 In fact, the Adventists from the parish priest of San report from a priest from Trieste mentions Antonio Taumaturgo (St. Anthony the that most of the adherents were poor work­ Hermit) in Trieste. That Adventist com­ ers to whom, ‘in a certain abundance’, sub­ munity was, according to the priest, com­ sidies (money, food and clothing) were dis­ prised of about 150 people, and the service tributed. Often, in this way, whole families was hosted by a Slovenian family.18 would be supported.21 Adventists in Italy Information on Adventist proselytiza­ were dependent on the Adventist mission, tion collected by two parish priests seemed to in particular the European division located be enough for the Bishop’s Office to request in Bern, which appointed their leadership intervention by the police. The police com­ and provided the necessary funds, in addi­ missioner agreed with the Catholic curia tion to a very high level of internal contri­ about the seriousness of the ‘issue’, indi­ butions (a tithing) (Rochat 1990: 19). cating that Adventist activities amounted The war did indeed change the attitude to false and subversive propaganda that of the police towards the Adventists which divided the people, citing Mussolini in was until then still restrained and focused saying that what is done against the ‘State on individuals. In December 1940, one of and the Nation’ is a crime.19 Naturally, the weekly reports of the police in Trieste to the Ministry of the Interior stated:

16 ADT, 1938/623 Police commissioner of Trieste to the Bishop Antonio Santin. Police commissioner of Trieste to the Office Trieste, 22.11.1938. of the Bishop of Trieste and Koper. Trieste, 17 ADT, 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. The 4.4.1940. Priest of Servola to the Office of the Bishop 20 ADT, 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. of Trieste and Koper. Trieste, 8.1.1940. Priest of Servola to the Office of the Bishop 18 ADT, 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. of Trieste and Koper. Trieste, 5.8.1940. Priest of S. Antonio Taumaturgo to the 21 ADT, 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. Office of the Bishop of Trieste and Koper. Priest of S. Antonio Taumaturgo to the Trieste, 5.3.1940. Office of the Bishop of Trieste and Koper. 19 ADT, 1940/40 Propaganda protestante. Trieste, 5.3.1940.

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 71 … the Catholic organizations grouped clearly indicates the subordinate position in the Catholic Action are directed of Slovenian Adventists who, apart from by the Curia and have for some time anything else, were likely to lose the sup­ shown a certain awakening, especially port of their majority Catholic Slovenian to counteract the Adventist action. minority. However, the conversion of some The activity of these organizations has Adventists, which unfortunately I cannot so far remained within purely reli­ back up with historical sources, could be an gious limits …’22 act of protest against the Catholic Church’s non-interference against violent Fascist The next section of the report mentions: policies towards Slavic minorities, similar to the conversions to Orthodoxy of their … various Protestant and pseudo- compatriots in emigration in Yugoslavia religious sects that exist in this prov­ (Mithans 2016b). ince do not cause excessive concern, because they still have few adherents Conclusion and limited activity, with the excep­ Protestant or Evangelical Churches and tion of the ‘Adventists’, a community denominations, and to some extent other which has been recently developing religious minorities in interwar Italy, rep­ especially among Slovenians. Their resented an organised alternative platform development has been cut short by for religious people vis-à-vis the Catholic known repressive measures and the Church in particular, and in most cases Adventist sect is currently completely also against the interests of the Fascist disorganized.23 regime. Another significant characteris­ tic of Protestant communities was their If the police, on the volition of the multi­cultural and multi-national composi­ Catholic diocese, intervened against the tion, even though that was not limited to Adventists in 1940 based on their likely borderlands such as the French-speaking ‘subversive’ actions due to the signifi­ Waldensian valleys and the Julian March. cant number of Slovenians in this reli­ However, especially in the case of the latter, gious organisation, the opposition of the that was more pressing for the Fascist Catholic Church was a response to the authorities due to the minorities’ connec­ Adventists’ increased proselytization activ­ tions to the former state (Austria-Hungary) ities. However, both authorities in the and to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Julian March agreed that non-Catholic Slovenes/Yugoslavia, a country with which ‘religious propaganda’ was unaccept­able Italy, except during one short period, had as it threatened the unity of the nation. unfriendly relations. This may be a discourse of ‘Othering’ (see The reasons for the interventions of Dervin 2016: 43–55) par excellence, as it the Italian Fascist regime against reli­ gious minorities were usually based on suspicion of a non-Catholic community 22 AS 1829, 31, 575. Report on political and being involved in subversive activit­ies. economic conditions in the province of Intimidation was usually (unconvin­cingly) Trieste. Trieste, 28.12.1940. 23 AS 1829, 31, 575 Report on political and justified on the basis of a protection of economic conditions in the province of ‘public morality’ and ‘national unity’; there­ Trieste. Trieste, 28.12.1940. fore repercussions occurred particularly in

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 72 cases of connections with foreign coun­ (Pelikan 2018: 41–2). We can assume that tries in Europe or the USA, or when the where other divisions existed religion was state powers expected to gain some polit­ not as important a divisive factor. On the ical advantage by supporting the accusa­ other hand, as previously indicated, in tions of the Catholic officials. Meanwhile, the case of Adventists the reaction of the the Catholic Church and its organisa­ Catholic clergy and hierarchy as well as the tions, irrespective of the nationality of their police was practically the same as in other members, sought every opportunity to cases of intimidation of minority Christian condemn the ‘heretics’.24 Throughout the groups all over Italy. The police proceeded years of the regime, surveillance and inter­ in the way the Catholic hierarchy wished. vention intensified. The religious commu­ If the treatment of Protestants and nities that experienced severe oppression some other marginal religious groups in in Italy aside from the Jews were unper­ Fascist Italy was largely dependent on the mitted and banned denominations, especi­ relations between the Catholic Church ally Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and and the state authorities, the situation in the Salvation Army, and mostly after 1938 the Julian March was even more compli­ and during the war when special laws were cated and forced assimilation of national applied (Carrari 2002: 139, 156–7). minorities made the dialogue between reli­ In the Julian March, where Pentecostals gious communities very difficult. However, and Jehovah’s Witnesses were almost non- incentives for cooperation and solidarity existent, the Seventh-day Adventists in between some Protestant Churches and Trieste were harassed by police on behalf of the Orthodox Christian community did the Bishop’s Office, which eventually caused exist, but unfortunately did not succeed in their temporary disbandment. The peculi­ including the Catholic Church.  arity there was surveillance, intimidation and confinement of several Catholic priests Dr Gašper Mithans of Slovenian and Croatian origin (Kacin is a Senior Research Fellow at the Science Wohinz and Verginella 2008: 82–3), due and Research Centre to their support of or sympathies towards Koper, Slovenia. His anti-Fascist movements, opposition to vio­ doctoral dissertation lation of minority rights and/or connec­ (2012) focused on tions with Yugoslavia. These preoccupa­ the Yugoslav Con­ tions of the Fascist regime backed by the cordat and Catholic– Orthodox relations in ‘pro-Italian’ Catholic hierarchy at least to the Kingdom of Yugo­ some extent decreased their dislike of reli­ slavia. He led a European project funded by the gious minorities, although (mutual) reli­ Europe for Citizens Programme and conducted gious prejudices were very much present postdoctoral research on interreligious relations and conversions in interwar Slovenia. In 2018, he was a visiting researcher at the University Col­ lege Cork and attended the US Department of 24 The more assertive organisations of the State’s SUSI programme on religious pluralism. Slovenian Christian Socials stated among His research interests include history of reli­ their aims, besides fervent anti-Fascist gions, the transnational­ and political history of activ­ities, to inform Slovenian papers in interwar Slovenia, Yugoslavia and Italy. the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of the religious ‘renegades’ (Kacin Wohinz and Verginella 2008: 204).

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 73 References ‘Paramilitarism in Europe after the Great Research material War: an introduction’, War in Peace. Para- ACVCVTs = Archivio della Comunità Evan­ military Violence in Europe after the Great gelica di Confessione Elvetica Trieste War, ed. Robert Gerwarth and John Horne ADT = Archivio diocesano di Trieste (Oxford University Press), pp. 1–18 Curia vescovile di Trieste e Capodistria Gilbert, Geoff, 1999. ‘Religio-nationalist minor­ [= Koper] 1938/623, 1940/40 ities and the development of minority rights AJ = Archive of Yugoslavia law’, Review of International Studies, 25(3), 69, The Ministry for Religious Affairs in the pp. 389–410 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians Gottardi, Sauro, 1993. Gli evangelici nel Golfo (1919–29) del Quarnaro dal millecinquecento a oggi (G. 373, Embassy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Sauro) to the Holy See Grandits, Hannes, 2018. ‘Changing legitima­ ARS = Archive of Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana tions of state borders and “phantom bor­ The collection of the sources of the royal ders” in the northern Adriatic regions’, Bor- questures of Trieste and Gorizia, SI AS 1829 derlands of Memory: Adriatic and Central ASTs = Archivio di Stato di Trieste European Perspectives, ed. Borut Klabjan Prefettura di Trieste 37, 3242 (New York, Peter Lang) Hametz, Maura, 2012. In the Name of Italy: Bibliography Nation, Family, and Patriotism in a Fas- Ballinger, Pamela, 2003. History in Exile: Mem- cist Court (New York, Fordham University ory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans Press) (Princeton University Press) Jackson-Preece, Jennifer, 2014. ‘Beyond the Bettin, Christina M., 2007. ‘Jews in Italy between (non)­definition of minority’, ECMI Brief, integration and assimilation, 1861–1938’, 30.2.2014 The European Legacy, 12(3), pp. 337–50 Jakelić, Slavica, 2010. Collectivistic Religions: Bon, Silva, 2000. Gli Ebrei a Trieste 1930–1945: Reli­gion, Choice, and Identity in Late Mod­ identità, persecuzione, risposte (Libreria ernity­ (Farnham, Ashgate Publishing) Edi­trice Goriziana) Kacin Wohinz, Milica, and Marta Verginella, Bosworth, Richard J. B., 2006. Mussolini’s Italy: 2008. Primorski upor fašizmu: 1920‒1941 Life under the Dictatorship, 1915–1945 (Lon­ (Ljubljana, Društvo slovenska matica) don, Penguin Books) Kamouzis, Dimitris, 2017. ‘Out of harm’s way? Carrari, Giovanni, 2002. Protestantesimo a Structural violence and the Greek Ortho­ Trieste­ dal 1700 al 2000 (Trieste, Lint) dox community of Istanbul during World Davis, John A., 2010. The Jews of San Nicandro War I’, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish (New Haven CT, Yale University Press) Studies Association, 4(1), pp. 189–211 De Felice, Renzo, 2001. The Jews in Fascist Italy: Kapalo, James A., 2019. Inochentism and Ortho- A History (New York, Enigma Books) dox Christianity: Religious Dissent in the Dervin, Fred, 2016. Interculturality in Education Russian and Romanian Borderlands (Lon­ (London, Palgrave Pivot) don, Routledge) Đurić-Milovanović, Aleksandra, 2017. ‘Alter­ Klabjan, Borut, 2018. ‘Borders in arms: polit­ native religiosity in Communist Yugoslavia:­ ical violence in the north-eastern Adriatic migration as a survival strategy of the Naza­ after the Great War’, Acta Histriae, 26(4), rene community’, Open Theology, 3, pp. pp. 985–1002 447–57 Madonna, Michele, 2016. ‘Libertà religiosa e Fonio, Chiara, 2011. ‘Surveillance under Musso­ principi costituzionali. Un breve itinera­ lini’s regime’, Surveillance & Society, 9(1/2), rio di lettura nella dottrina di Arturo Carlo pp. 80–92 Jemolo. Stato, Chiese e pluralismo confes­ Franzinelli, Mimmo, 2001. Delatori. Spie e con- sionale’, Rivista telematica, 8, pp. 1–27 fidenti anonimi: l’arma segreta del regime Măran, Mircea, and Aleksandra Đurić-Milo­ fascista (Ostiglia, Mondadori) vanović, 2015. ‘From double to triple Gerwarth, Robert, and John Horne, 2012. minority: Romanian neo-Protestants from

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 74 the Serbian Banat in the United States and Pirjevec, Jože, 2016. ‘Benito Mussolini in Slo­ Canada’, Transylvanian Review, 24(3), pp. venci’, Acta Histriae, 24(4), pp. 721–30 85–97 Podbersič, Renato, 2016. ‘Obmejni fašizem in Mercati, Angelo (ed.), 1954. Raccolta di con- odnos do Judov’, Acta Histriae, 24(4), pp. cordati su materie ecclesiastiche tra la Santa 837–54 Sede e le autorità civili. Vol. II, 1915–1954 Rajšp, Vincenc, 2018. ‘Oris protestantizma na (Città del Vaticano, Tipografia Poliglotta Goriškem v 19. stoletju do prve svetovne Vaticana) vojne’, Stati inu obstati: revija za vprašanja Mithans, Gašper, 2016a. ‘Odnosi med italijan­ protestantizma, 28, pp. 11–42 skim fašizmom in katolicizmom: primer Rochat, Giorgio, 1990. Regime fascista e chiese obmejnega območja Julijske krajine’, Acta evangeliche. Direttive e articolazioni del con- Histriae, 24(4), pp. 745–66 trollo e della repressione (Torino, Claudiana) ——2016b. ‘Crossing state and religious borders Sala, Teodoro, 1974. ‘Trieste 1940: Retroscena in interwar Yugoslavia’, Historias de frontera politico-religiosi della persecuzione di fronteras con historia, ed. Francisco Zamora mino­ranze evangeliche’, Bollettino dell’Isti- Rodríguez (Lisboa, Universidade Nova de tuto regionale per la storia del movimento di Lisboa), pp. 222–44 liberazione nel Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, 2(2), Moro, Renato, 1998. ‘Pregiudizio religioso e pp. 37–41 ideologia: antiebraismo e antiprotestante­ Schievelbusch, Wolfgang, 2003. The Culture of simo nel cattolicesimo italiano fra le due Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and guerre’, Le Carte, 3, pp. 17–65 Recovery (New York, Metropolitan Books) ——2003. ‘Cattolicesimo e italianità’, La Chiesa Scoppola, Pietro, 1973. ‘Fascismo e le mino­ e l’Italia: per una storia dei loro rapporti ranze evangeliche’, Il fascismo e le autonomie negli ultimi due secoli, ed. Antonio Acerbi locali, ed. Sergio Fontana (Bologna, Il (Milano, Vita e Pensiero Editrice), pp. Mulino), pp. 331–94 307–39 Spini, Giorgio, 2007. Italia di Mussolini e prote- Patzelt, Herbert, 1999. Evangelisches Leben am stanti (Torino, Claudiana Editrice) Golf von Triest (München, Evang. Presse­ Viallet, Jean-Pierre, 1985. La Chiesa valdese di verb. für Bayern e.V.) fronte allo stato fascista (Torino, Claudiana Pelikan, Egon, 2002. ‘Slovensko Primorje v Editrice) odnosu med Cerkvijo in italijansko državo Vinci, Annamaria, 2004. ‘Vzpon fašizma ob ita­ do leta 1941’, Država in Cerkev: izbrani lijanski vzhodni meji’, Prispevki za novejšo zgodovinski ­in pravni vidiki, ed. Alenka zgodovino, 44(1), pp. 27–39 Šelih and Janko Pleterski (Ljubljana, Slo­ ——2011. Sentinelle della patria: il fascismo al venska akademija znanosti in umetnosti), confine orientale 1918–1941 (Bari, Laterza) pp. 299–308 Visintin, Angelo, 2000. L’Italia a Trieste. L’ope- ——2013. ‘Vizitacije v Julijski krajini v času rato del governo militare italiano nella Vene- med obema vojnama’, Acta Histriae, 21(3), zia Giulia 1918–1919 (Gorizia, Libreria edi­ pp. 313–28 trice Goriziana) ——2018. ‘Začetki slovenskega političnega Vizi, Balázs, 2013. ‘Protection without defin­ katolicizma in ekumenizem’, Stičišče reli- ition: notes on the concept of “minority gijskih svetov: družbeni in politični vidiki rights” in Europe’, Minority Research, 15(1), ekumenizma na Slovenskem, ed. Gašper pp. 7–24 Mithans (Koper, Založba Annales ZRS Wörsdörfer, Rolf, 2009. Il confine orientale. Ita- Koper), pp. 29–42 lia e Jugoslavia dal 1915 al 1955 (Bologna, Perin, Raffaella, 2011. ‘La Chiesa veneta e le Il Mulino) mino­ranze religiose (1918–1939)’, Chiesa Zanini, Paolo, 2015. ‘Twenty years of persecu­ cattolica e minoranze in Italia nella prima tion of Pentecostalism in Italy: 1935–1955’, metà del Novecento (Roma, Viella), pp. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 20(5), pp. 133–223 686–707 Piccioli, Paolo, 2003. ‘L’obiezione di coscienza al Žitko, Salvator, ‘Sistemi oblasti v Istri v prehod­ servizio militare durante il fascismo’, Studi nem obdobju (1797–1815)’, Acta Histriae, 7, Storici, 44(2), pp. 491–510 pp. 577–98

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 75 ——2016. Avstrijsko Primorje (Koper, Inštitut IRRIS, Zgodovinsko društvo za južno Pri­ morsko, Libris)

Approaching Religion • Vol. 9, No. 1–2 • October 2019 76