Croatian Orthodox Church

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Croatian Orthodox Church emblem

The Croatian Orthodox Church ( Croatian : Hrvatska pravoslavna crkva , abbreviation: HPC ) was founded in the vassal state of the Axis Powers Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during the Second World War . It was supposed to represent the autocephalous national church of the Croatian Orthodox Faith . An attempt was made to convince as many Orthodox as possible to convert to this church. The majority of the Orthodox population in Croatia, however, felt they were Serbs and thus belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church .

Foundation and activity

In 1941, the Croatian Minister of Justice and Culture, Mirko Puk , overturned the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia. The further use of this term for Orthodoxy was forbidden because the Orthodox Church is directed from abroad (Serbia), which is unacceptable for the Independent State of Croatia. For the orthodox faith the designation "Greco-Eastern rite" was prescribed.

Due to protests associated with riots and the mostly unsuccessful and forced conversion to the Roman Catholic faith, the leader of the Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić , decided to take "confidence-building measures" against the Orthodox population of Croatia. One should be the appointment of Orthodox members of parliament on February 25, 1942. The other was the establishment of the Croatian Orthodox Church on June 7, 1942 in the Church of Sveto Preobraženije (Holy Transfiguration) in Zagreb. The Croatian Orthodox Patriarch was the Russian Orthodox priest Germogen, who fled Russia after the October Revolution . The legal basis for the foundation was a law of April 3, 1942, signed by Pavelić and comprising only four paragraphs.

The reason for the establishment was outlined by Pavelić in a speech to the Croatian Sabor :

“ [...] Pravoslavism itself is not prosecuted by anyone, but there can be no Serbian Pravoslaw church in the Croatian state! And why not? Because all over the world the Pravoslav churches represent national churches. With regard to its hierarchy, the Serbian Pravoslav Church is subject to the state authority of Serbia. Serbia, the representatives of the Serbian state, have to elect the pravoslav patriarch or at least to a large extent take part in his election. The entire hierarchy from the pastor to the deacon depends on this. Everything is therefore dependent on the state power of Serbia. It can be like that in Serbia, it could also be like that in the former unfortunate Yugoslavia, but it cannot and will not be like that in the Croatian state! [...] In no case will we admit that any church becomes a political tool, a means specifically directed against the existence of the Croatian people and the Croatian state. [...] That is why sensible people, to whom the interests of the people but also the interests of faith are at heart, will find their way [...] and think through, research and think through this question to the satisfaction of Pravoslavism, the satisfaction of the people and in the interests of the Croatian state understand how to solve. "

The Minister of the Interior of the Independent State of Croatia, Mladen Lorković , tried to emphasize equality vis-à-vis other religions :

" [...] We have Orthodox ministers and generals, high officials, men in the highest and most responsible positions. With the creation of the Orthodox Church of the Independent State of Croatia, the position of the Croatian state towards the Orthodox Church was basically also determined. It is dear to us like any other recognized denomination, but as a national church it must have its seat in Croatia and cannot be subordinate to any foreign head of state. "

The most important propagandist for the Croatian Orthodox Church turned out to be the Montenegrin writer and publicist Savić Marković Štedimlija , who welcomed the independence of Montenegro under Sekula Drljević and advocated the thesis that the Montenegrin people are a “symbiosis of the Illyrian [...] and Croatians , as well as a small remainder of the Romanesque population ”. On the Croatian Orthodox Church, Štedimlija u. a .:

“ With the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the disintegration of the Pravoslav Church, which bore the Serbian name, had to go hand in hand, despite the fact that in that state no other than the“ Yugoslav ”nationality was“ officially ”recognized. On the territory of the Independent State of Croatia there is no longer any space for any Serbian church organization, which is why the Poglavnik [Ante Pavelić] ordered the establishment of the Croatian Pravoslav church in the territory of Croatia by means of a legal decree. This church is autocephalous like every other Pravoslav church; in everything it adheres to the dogmas of holy Pravoslavism and maintains friendly relations with other Pravoslav churches. With the establishment of the Croatian Pravoslav Church, all three Pravoslav ecclesiastical jurisdictions that had existed on Croatian territory before the First World War were united. "

The Croatian authorities did not always agree with the “independence” and work of the priesthood. The Croatian Consul General in Vienna, Andrija Karčić , complained to the Croatian Foreign Minister Mehmet Alajbegović on February 12, 1945 about the representative of the Croatian Orthodox Church, the Archimandrite Miron Federer, because of “neglect of work” and his refusal to give instructions from the Consul General to be accepted on the grounds that "he is not an official, but a representative of the autocephalous Croatian Orthodox Church and therefore does not report to anyone". The Consul General also wrote:

“ [...] the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia expect from an archimandrite of the Croatian Orthodox Church cooperation [...] in the sense of religious-political activity, faith and political propaganda, especially among the Serbs, about notoriously dangerous, negative elements to be eliminated in time or at least to be paralyzed. "

The End

The Croatian Orthodox Church was an attempt to pacify the Independent State of Croatia by turning away from the aggressive conversion policy and to make it more acceptable for non-Catholic non-Croatians. At the time of its founding, the majority of Croatia's Orthodox had fled, deported, interned in camps or joined the Chetnik or partisan movement . The Croatian government tried to portray the institution as successful and popular, but the 577 Serbian Orthodox priests who had existed on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia were compared to just 50 Croatian Orthodox priests with 40 parishes at the end of 1942. This was also due to the fact that large parts of Croatia were no longer controlled by the Croatian government.

Patriarch Germogen was sentenced to death and executed by the communist Tito partisans in 1945 in an express court martial .

In 1979, a central figure in the Croatian Orthodox Church, Miloš Obrknežević , justified the establishment of the church as an attempt to create a modern Croatian identity independent of denominational affiliation.

present

In Croatia today there is a Hrvatska pravoslavna zajednica (Croatian Orthodox Community), which claims to be the representative of the Croatian Orthodox faith and the successor of the Croatian Orthodox Church. There is no information about a possible number of members.

literature

  • Ante Pavelić: Hrvatska pravoslavna crkva (The Croatian Orthodox Church). Publisher Domovina, Madrid 1984. - ISBN 8-4499-7253-1 (Croatian)
  • Petar Požar: Hrvatska pravoslavna crkva u prošlosti i budućnosti (The Croatian Orthodox Church in the past and future). Naklada Pavičić, Zagreb 1996. - ISBN 953-6308-03-7 (Croatian)
  • Klaus Buchenau: Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Yugoslavia 1945–1991: A Serbian-Croatian Comparison . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-447-04847-6 .
  • Michail Shkarovskij: The Church Policy of the Third Reich towards the Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe (1939 to 1945). Lit Verlag, Münster 2004, pp. 76-105. - ISBN 3-8258-6615-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ministerial Ordinance of July 18, 1941. In: Narodne Novine , No. 77 of April 7, 1942.
  2. ↑ Petar Požar: Hrvatska Pravoslavna crkva u i prošlosti budućnosti . Naklada Pavičić, Zagreb 1996, pp. 86 f., 111 ff.
  3. ↑ Zakonska odredba o Hrvatskoj pravoslavnoj crkvi . In: Narodne novine , No. 77 of April 7, 1942.
  4. ↑ Pravoslavism in Croatia . In: SM Štedimlija: Conspiracies Against Peace . Putovi publishing house, Zagreb 1944, pp. 50–51.
  5. ↑ Speech by the Minister of the Interior Dr. Mladen Lorković in front of the Sabor on January 14, 1944. In: Mladen Lorković: Croatia's fight against Bolshevism . Velebit publishing house, Zagreb 1944, p. 82.
  6. ^ The present situation in Montenegro . In: SM Štedimlija: In the Balkans . Putovi publishing house, Zagreb 1943, p. 110.
  7. ↑ Pravoslavism in Croatia . In: SM Štedimlija: Conspiracies Against Peace . Putovi publishing house, Zagreb 1944, p. 50.
  8. ↑ Croatian State Archives Zagreb (HDA), Cultural Section (MPB), Odelj bogoštovlja (OB), Fund 218, fasc. No. 2, document No. 812
  9. ^ Klaus Buchenau: Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Yugoslavia 1945-1991. A Serbian-Croatian comparison . Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, p. 73
  10. ↑ Ladislaus Hory / Martin Broszat: The Croatian Ustascha State 1941-1945 , 2nd edition Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1965, p. 173.
  11. ↑ Veljko Đurić: Ustaše i pravoslavlje: Hrvatska pravoslavna crkva (Ustaschen and Orthodox: The Croatian Orthodox Church). Beletra, Belgrad 1989, p. 173.
  12. ↑ Hrvatska Pravoslavna Zajednica: Ideja o ustrojstvu Hrvatske pravoslavne crkve . URL: http://www.hrvatskipravoslavci.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=554:ideja-o-ustrojstvu-hrvatske-pravoslavne-crkve&catid=2:povijest&Itemid=6 (accessed on February 9, 2012)