Pregledni rad
Karlo Cankar, an ethnic Slovene and Priest in Bosnia (1877-1953)
Mato Zovkić
; Univerzitet u Sarajevu - Katolički bogoslovni fakultet, Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina
Sažetak
In Slovenia Karlo Cankar is known for having been younger brother of the country’s most celebrated writer Ivan Cankar. Karlo hosted his brother in Sarajevo for six
months in 1909 and during that time Ivan wrote his play, Hlapci (Serfs). Karlo preserved
Ivan’s letters, which were published in three volumes in Ljubljana 1948 by their cousin
dr. Izidor Cankar.
Karlo was a seminarian of Ljubljana diocese in 1901 when he decided to continue his theological studies in Sarajevo as a candidate for the priesthood of Sarajevo
Archdiocese. He was ordained in 1903 and performed different ministries in Sarajevo
from 1904 to 1929. He supported the view of Archbishop Josip Stadler that Croats and
Slovenes could have a prosperous future within the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy if the
monarchy granted them more ethnic and cultural rights. This is why Stadler entrusted
him with the office of editor-in-chief of Hrvatski Dnevnik (1906-1918), a daily political
newspaper desigebnd to inform Catholic Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina about Catholic social thought and activity. Stadler’s successor, Ivan Šarić, named Cankar a canon of
Vrhbosna-Sarajevo chapter in 1923 and asked him to assume the task of editor-in-chief
of Katolički Tjednik, the weekly Magazine for Croat Catholics in Bosnia. In his essays,
Cankar highlighted the scandalous abuses of Vojo Janjić, Minister for Religions in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and of other Serb state employees who behaved
as if the new state of the South Slavs were simply an enlargement of the Kingdom of Serbia. In this period, canons received their salaries from the state budget, and Vojo Janjić
punished Cankar by withdrawing his salary. In 1926 Fr. Dragutin Kamber wrote an article in Katolički Tjednik announcing his intention to transform this weekly into an organ
of Catholic Action, inspired by the Bosnian view of this lay apostolate movement that
emerged from the 1922 encyclical of Pope Pius XI Ubi Arcano Dei. Cankar supported
the role of the lay apostolate as proposed by Zagreb supporters of the movement. Since
Archbishop Šarić took the side of Fr. Kamber, Cankar resigned from editing the Katolički
tjednik and writing for it.
On 24 September 1929 Cankar was named parish priest of Lukavac and dean
of Tuzla deanery. In October 1937 he resigned from pastoral ministry due to his health
and was given accommodation in “Egypt”, an orphanage and elementary school for
poor children run by the Servants of the Infant Jesus in Sarajevo. In 1949 the communist
regime confiscated all schools run by Catholic nuns in Sarajevo. Thanks to the mediation of his cousin, dr. Izidor Cankar, who was a public figure in Ljubljana, Karlo moved
in 1949 to the Franciscan Convent in Ljubljana where he finished his earthly journey
on 9 February 1953. Together with Anton Jeglič, a Slovenian priest who was a canon in
Sarajevo for sixteen years in the late 19th century and bishop of Ljubljana from 1898 to
1930, Karlo Cankar affirmed the friendly relations of Croat Catholics and Slovenes. This
friendship was confirmed by bl. Aloysius Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagreb who provided
acceptance and pastoral assignment for 534 Slovene priests driven from their parishes or
religious communities by the pro-Nazi regime during World War Two. This friendship is cherished by today’s Croatian and Slovenian bishops in periodical pilgrimages that take
place alternatively in Croatia and Slovenia. Such a pilgrimage took place on 19 October
2019 in Krašić, the native parish of A. Stepinac, where the archbishop was held by the
communist regime from 5 December 1951 to 10 February 1960 after his imprisonment
in Lepoglava for five years. Cardinal Vinko Puljić, the present Archbishop of Sarajevo,
confirms this friendship by his periodical encounters with Slovenian bishops and pastoral
visits to Croatian Catholics living in Slovenia who were expelled from Bosnia during the
1991-95 war.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
259921
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.7.2020.
Posjeta: 629 *