Original scientific paper
Political Orientation of the Croatian Catholic Movement in the Last Years of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Days of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (1903-1918)
Zlatko MATIJEVIĆ
Abstract
The fateful event in the development of the Croatian Catholic
Movement (HKP) was the founding of the Croatian Catholic
Seniority (HKS), an exclusive organization of Catholic clerical
and lay intellectual circles. (1912). In the Christmas issue of
the Catholic journal "Rije~ke novine", the seniors – a circle
around Dr Petar Rogulja – publish their "first politicalprogram
article", in which they take a view on the necessity
of pursuing the "national unity of Slovenians, Croats and
Serbs". When the seniors accepted the political program
"Svibanjska deklaracija" (The May Declaration of 1917) as a
basis for their work on "national issues", it was quite evident
that Rogulja's "Yugoslav orientation" of the HKP had won a
decisive victory. "The Declaration" was politically at its highest when the Bishop of Krk, Dr Antun Mahnić (1918) started
publicly supporting it. Defending "The Declaration" not only
with the common, and permissible political arguments, but
also with those of a theological nature, the Bishop confused
politics and religion and put himself in an unfortunate
position. He could thus be accused equally of proselytism,
although it was a matter of clumsy ecumenism ("the Cyril-
Methodius idea"), and for the abuse of Catholic faith for
political purposes, which was most often called – clericalism.
However, if there had been clericalism in Croatia at the time,
then it could have only been in the function of creating the
Yugoslav state, i.e. – Yugoslav clericalism. By establishing the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (1918) "Yugoslav
ideology" experienced its first full triumph.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
20163
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2001.
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