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RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AT THE END OF THE NINETEENTH AND THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CONCERNING THE NEW AND UP TO NOW UNKNOWN ARCHIVAL SOURCES
Zlatko KUDELIĆ
Sažetak
On the basis of three examples of conversions to Catholicism author analyzes religious policy of the Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The analysis based on the known results of historiography and up to now unused archival sources enabled author to reveal new facts and bring up new conclusions. Used examples of conversions, which were a matter of dispute between Lands government and archbishop Josip Stadler, reveal that the chief problem was approach to the Regulation on conversions (1891) and its additions from 1893. Lay authorities did not accept Stadler’s arguments regarding the harm that these regulations did to the Catholic community, while at the same time they favored Orthodox and Muslim believers. Similarly, Austro-Hungarian authorities did not recognize Stadler’s stance that Catholics in Bosnia and Hercegovina cannot accept these regulations since they had not been confirmed by the Holy See. By the same token, lay authorities argued that Stadler’s disapproval of the Regulations had caused uneasiness among Orthodox and Muslim religious communities. Furthermore, secular authorities constantly avoided to comment cases of violent behavior of religious communities towards their converts, but they emphasized violence of Catholics toward those of different beliefs, especially towards Muslims. Such attitude was quite evident in the cases of Useifa Delihametović, Ester Altarac and Husein Omanović, in which secular authorities officially did not comment behavior of converts’ families, as well as they negated any possibility of relatives’ influence on the converts’ will. The most drastic case was that of Đurđinka Pavlović who was convert from the Orthodoxy and candidate to became a Catholic nun in Sarajevo. In 1913 she was abducted by the members of Orthodox community, and authorities’ response to this tense situation was public punishment of the Catholics who had helped Đurđinka in her conversion. Such behavior of secular authorities certainly was not in accordance with the proclaimed protection of personal freedom, which included freedom of religion. Curiously enough, secular authorities often used this notion of personal freedom in cases of conversions from Islam to Catholicism, since it was quite opportune in their need to relativize Stadler’s arguments about favorable politics toward Orthodox and Muslim communities.
Ključne riječi
Bosnia and Herzegovina; Austo-Hungarian Monarchy; Islam; Catholicism; Orthodoxy; Catholic Church; Serbian Orthodox Church; conversions; Josip Stadler; historiography
Hrčak ID:
81354
URI
Datum izdavanja:
12.12.2011.
Posjeta: 2.788 *