Published 01.12.1998
Keywords
- Roman Catholic Church,
- Croatia,
- Balkans,
- church and state,
- Catholic movement
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Copyright (c) 1998 Balcanica
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Abstract
Clerical Program of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia for the 20th Century
The first Croatian Catholic congress was held in Zagreb between September 3-5. 1900. The congress aimed to adjust the strategy of the Roman Catholic Church in the forthcoming century to meet the altered political, economic and cultural circumstances, in order to preserve the dominant position of the Roman Catholic Church in respect to the state. The congress adopted eight resolutions specifying the clerical program of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia for the new century. The eight resolutions were based on the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. Though the resolutions were suited to the spirit of the new times, their goal was to carry out Roman Catholic canon law in all segments of social life. State laws had to be subject to ecclesiastical laws. The culture of society had to remain within the sphere of interest of the Roman Catholic Church. The ideology and political aims of the state in all fields of activity had to be in harmony with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The clerical program underscored the Roman Catholic Church as the most important national institution in Croatian society. To the participants of the congress, the Catholic movement (network of farm cooperatives, trade unions, congregations, societies, associations political parties and so on) had been ordered to consolidate in society the clerical program adopted in congress, as the only framework within which the national consciousness of the Croatian people was to be developed.