Pregledni rad
Catholic Church in Istria and Croatian - Italian National and Political Disputes and Conflicts in 1861-1907
Stipan Trogrlić
; Institut društvenih znanosti Ivan Pilar Zagreb, Područni centar Pula, Pula, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In the second half of the 19th century, political developments in the Austrian province of Istria were marked by confrontations and conflicts between the Croatian and Italian national movements. Ecclesiastical, primarily governing clerical structures, at times consciously, at times by inertia, engaged in these conflicts, what resulted in the “sacralization” of politics and nation, and the “politicization” of faith and Church. This went to the extent that both the Croatian and Italian sides were aware of the need to emphasize and defend their own national identity as an essential part of pastoral work. Namely, the national question became an inevitable, almost dominant problem of Istrian political reality and Catholic universalism was often used for the purposes of national exclusivism. From the time he became the bishop of the Diocese of Poreč and Pula in 1858 until his death in 1882 (from 1875 he was the bishop of the Diocese of Trieste and Koper), Juraj Dobrila was the dominant figure not only of the church- religious, but also of the sociopolitical scene. His advocacy for the rights of his Slavic faithful, both ecclesiastically and socially, in Italian liberal circles was considered as Dobrila’s nationalism. The hope of the Italian political elites that the process of Italianization of the “Slavs” (Croats and Slovenes) in Istria would flow naturally was prevented precisely by Dobrila and Croatian priests. Since the Old Church Slavonic liturgy had a broader national-identity meaning, the struggle for its preservation in the Church turned into a political issue. Even after Dobrila’s death in 1882, when the leadership of the Croatian national movement was slowly overtaken by the right-wing secular intellectuals, Croatian ecclesiastical structures were present in political events and played an important role in defending the rights of their believers, while Italians increasingly turned to national issues, aware of the domination of the national issue in the lives of their faithful.
Ključne riječi
Catholic Church; Istria; National Identity; Pastoral Work; Politics; Divisions; Croats; Italians
Hrčak ID:
235929
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.2.2020.
Posjeta: 785 *