Review article
Relationship of the Hol y See with Yugoslavia at the Time of the Establishment of the Archdiocese of Rijeka and Senj
Franjo Emanuel Hoško
; Theology of Rijeka, Dislocated Studies of Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
On the 27th July, 1969, by the bulla “Coetu Instante” signed by pope Paul VI, the Croatian part of the diocese of Rijeka, established during the Italian rule, was united with the former diocese of Modruš. The diocese of Modruš was suppressed, de jure, and was united as equal in rights with the diocese of Senj. The new ecclesiastical province of Rijeka and Senj was elevated to the rank of metropolitan archdiocese, which embedded as suffragan regions the diocese of Poreč and Pula, and the diocese of Krk. The centre of the new metropolitan archdiocese was Rijeka, and Viktor Burić, the bishop of Senj and Modruš was proclaimed archbishop and metropolite.
This happened three years after the Protocol between the Holy See and Yugoslavia was signed: therefore it is reasonable to ask whether the state might have had its influence on the establishment of the Archdiocese of Rijeka and Senj, which was not only an ecclesiastical issue. In fact, the new archdiocese signified the suppression
of the Diocese of Rijeka, formed at the time of the Italian rule over a part of Croatia, and the beginning of an ecclesiastical region of a metropolitan character in the west part of Croatia, comprising two dioceses formerly entirely (diocese of Poreč and Pula) or partly (diocese of Krk) under the Italian rule. Present insights of the past events
justify the opinion that the Holy See established the metropolitan archdiocese of Rijeka and Senj without any particular coordination with the policy of the socialist Yugoslavia.
Keywords
metropolitan archdiocese of Rijeka and Senj; diocese of Modruš; diocese of Rijeka; Holy See; Yugoslavia; Protocol
Hrčak ID:
123660
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2010.
Visits: 1.934 *