Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.22586/pp.v40i61.17559
On the Political Aspects of Declaring an Epidemic in the Vicinity of Velehrad in Moravia on the Eve of the Celebration of the Thousandth Anniversary of St Methodius’s Death (1885)
Zoran Grijak
; Hrvatski institut za povijest
Sažetak
The paper investigates the circumstances in which an epidemic was proclaimed in the vicinity of Velehrad in Moravia, on the eve of the celebration of the thousandth anniversary of the St Methodius’s death on July 5, 1885, as one of the earliest examples of abusing medicine for political purposes. The events related to the prevention of the Velehrad celebration in 1885 have been analyzed on the basis of correspondence between Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer and Franjo Rački, as well as between Lujo and Kosto Vojnović. The analysis focuses on the measure of restricting movement, passed by a consensual decision of the governments of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Russian Empire, which prevented the organized travel of Slavic pilgrims from other parts of the two empires to Moravia, although the epidemic actually did not occur. The prohibition was purely political in nature, intended to prevent mass religious gatherings of Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Orthodox and Greek Catholics from the Russian Empire. The aim was to obstruct putting in practice the idea of church unification between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, strongly promoted by the Holy See during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878-1903). The Austro-Hungarian government considered the idea of church unification as extremely dangerous and an instrument of pan-Slavic propaganda that encouraged the penetration of the Russian Empire into the Balkan and Mediterranean regions, threatening the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Russian government also considered the idea of church unification to be highly dangerous, especially the affirmation of the Old Church Slavonic liturgy as the common church heritage of Catholic and Orthodox Slavs, which it perceived as an instrument of Catholic proselytism. In addition, in accordance with the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, Russia did not recognize Sts Cyril and Methodius as saints of the Catholic Church, but of the Orthodox Church alone. Affirmation of the Old Church Slavonic liturgy by the Holy See was also directly linked to its efforts to win over the Orthodox Churches in the Balkans for an ecclesiastical union, which Russia considered a potential threat to one of its most important foreign policy priorities, which was expanding its influence to the West. By accepting the ecclesiastical union with the Holy See, the Balkan Orthodox states would be far lesser subject to Russian political influence. Therefore, Russia accepted without hesitation the proposal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to introduce the measure of prohibiting movement, including closing the border with the Russian Empire, in order to prevent the pilgrimage to Velehrad. As a support for the hypothesis that the proclamation of the epidemic in the vicinity of Velehrad in 1885 was one of the earliest examples of abusing medicine for political purposes, it is pointed out that no infectious disease was medically registered in Moravia that year by the state institutions of public health. Given the coincidence of the proclamation of the Velehrad epidemic with the fifth cholera pandemic wave in the 19th century (1881-1896), the author draws attention to the discrepancy between the very objective reporting of the Viennese press – the Neue Freie Presse and the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung – on the Austro-Hungarian anti-epidemic measures in order to prevent the disease from spreading to the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the very biased and tendentious reporting of the same newspaper on the alleged outbreak in Moravia from mid-June 1885, on the eve of the great Velehrad celebration on July 5, 1885. This is directly related to the fact that the news about the appearance of several infectious diseases in Velehrad and its surroundings were false, and the mentioned press published them under the influence of the Austrian government, which used them for its political agenda. As crucial evidence, which supports the conclusions in this paper about the abuse of medicine for political purposes by the Austro-Hungarian authorities in connection with the Velehrad celebration of 1885, historian Jitka Jonová has mentioned in her paper that the Moravian Health Council, in its statement of July 3, 1885, stated that there was no need to prohibit the pilgrimage to Velehrad for health or epidemiological reasons.
Abuse of medicine by the Austro-Hungarian government in declaring a false epidemic in the vicinity of Velehrad in 1885, as probably one of the earliest examples of such abuse, has been taken as a basis for questioning the justification of all restrictive measures and decisions of public-health and political authorities in cases of serious threats to public health, in cases when they significantly violate the legal and constitutional rights of citizens, especially taking into account some drastic forms of abusing public health measures in the 20th century. The importance of critical attitude adopted by the public towards all important decisions and measures of political and medical authorities has also been emphasized in view of the current Covid-19 pandemic, during which some of the fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to free movement, have been revoked or significantly restricted, similarly to the proclamation of the epidemic in Moravia in 1885. The author indicates that he by no means intends to question the decisions and measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, or to deny the dangerous effects of the Sars-Cov-2 virus on human health, but only wants to point out that the mentioned decisions and measures, as well as all other public epidemiological measures of a restrictive nature, must be proportionate and continuously subject to critical questioning by the public, and also transparently and consensually explained by the medical authorities, on the basis of whose assessments they are introduced. All this has been emphasized as necessary in order not to jeopardize the trust of citizens in the decisions and measures of public-health and other institutions as well as the political authorities that manage the crisis situations, especially in times of a global pandemic such as the world is currently facing.
Ključne riječi
Velehrad celebration of 1885; Sts Cyril and Methodius; abusing epidemics for political purposes; Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; Russian Empire; Triune Kingdom; Josip Juraj Strossmayer; Lujo Vojnović; Kosto Vojnović; Franjo Rački
Hrčak ID:
270316
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.12.2021.
Posjeta: 955 *