Catholic Church in Croatia

The western part of the Balkan Peninsula was conquered by the Roman Empire by 168 BC after a long drawn out process known as the Illyrian Wars.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-26 |title=Balkans {{!}} Definition, Map, Countries, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}

Following their conquests, the Romans organised the area into the province of Illyricum, which was eventually split up into Dalmatia and Pannonia. Through being part of the Roman Empire, various religious cults were brought into the region. This included the Levantine-originated religion of Christianity. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 391.{{Cite web |title=Balkans - Roman Empire, Slavs, Christianity, and Byzantine Empire {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans/In-the-Roman-Empire |access-date=2023-07-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} In 395, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, and the dividing line went through the Balkans. Illyricum fell under the rule of Rome and the rest fell under the rule of Byzantium.

Indeed, Salona, the capital city of the province of Dalmatia, was one of the earliest places in the region connected with Christianity. It was able to gain influence first among some of the Dalmatian Jews living in the city. St. Titus, a disciple of St. Paul the Apostle and the subject of the Epistle to Titus in the New Testament, was active in Dalmatia. Indeed, in the Epistle to the Romans, Paul himself speaks of visiting "Illyricum", but he may have meant Illyria Graeca.

Somewhere in the early 7th century the Archdiocese of Salona vanished with the plundering raids of Sclaveni and Pannonian Avars, and Roman population found refuge in the Diocletian's Palace and other coastal cities and islands.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=76}}{{cite book |last=Vedriš |first=Trpimir |date=2015 |chapter=Pokrštavanje i rana kristijanizacija Hrvata |url=https://www.matica.hr/media/knjige/nova-zraka-u-europskom-svjetlu-1135/pdf/opci-pregled-ulomak-pokrstavanje-i-rana-kristijanizacija-hrvata-trpimir-vedris.pdf |title=Nova zraka u europskom svjetlu: Hrvatske zemlje u ranome srednjem vijeku (o. 550. – o. 1150.) |editor=Zrinka Nikolić Jakus |language=hr |location=Zagreb |publisher=Matica hrvatska |pages=173–200 |isbn=978-953-150-942-8 |access-date=6 January 2025}} Pope Gregory I (590–604) in his letters wrote about the arrival of Slavs in Dalmatia and Istria.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=217}} Soon the Holy See, which had jurisdiction and ecclesiastical order in the territory of former Diocese of Illyricum (and parts of the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum), began the process of Christianization.{{Cite journal |last=Živković |first=Tibor |author-link=Tibor Živković |title=On the Baptism of the Serbs and Croats in the Time of Basil I (867–886) |url=http://slavica-petropolitana.spbu.ru/files/2013_1/Zivkovic.pdf |journal=Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana |year=2013 |issue=1 |pages=33–53}}{{Cite book|last=Komatina|first=Predrag|chapter=The Church in Serbia at the Time of Cyrilo-Methodian Mission in Moravia|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/13442372|title=Cyril and Methodius: Byzantium and the World of the Slavs|year=2015|location=Thessaloniki|publisher=Dimos|pages=711–718}}

The Croats settled in the area of present-day Croatia after successful war against the Avars, liberating province of Dalmatia.{{sfn|Dvornik|1956|p=63}} Francis Dvornik considered that to the Croatian victorius advance is related account from Miracles of Saint Demetrius (7-8th century) about the revolt and liberation of Christian hostages of the Avars between rivers Sava, Drava and Danube.{{sfn|Dvornik|1956|p=63}}{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=218}} The Croats had their first official contact with the Holy See in year 641 when the Pope John IV papal envoy led by Abbot Martin came to them in order to redeem Christian captives and the bones of the martyrs Anastasius, Maurus and Venancio.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=217, 219}} Such event "is witness to the civilised and peaceful co-existence established between the indigenous Christian population and the new rulers of what had once been Roman Dalmatia and Illyria".{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=217}}

There is little information about the "Baptism of the Croats", but it is known that it was peacefully and freely accepted, and that it started since the 7th century. Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his De Administrando Imperio (10th century) wrote that the Heraclius (610–641), "obtained and brought priests from Rome and made of them an archbishop, bishop, presbyters and deacons, which then baptised the Croats".{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=219}} After the baptism, the Croats "made a convent, confirmed with their own signature, and by oaths sure and binding in the name of St. Peter the apostle, that never would they go upon a foreign country and make war upon it, but would rather live at peace with all who were willing to do so. They received from the same Pope of Rome this benediction: If some other foreigners should come against the country of these same Croats and bring war upon it, then might God fight for the Croats and protect them, and Peter the disciple of Christ give unto them victories".{{sfn|Živković|2012|p=63–64}} Nevertheless the exact dating of the convect agreement (early 7th or late 9th century), it is again alluded in Pope John VIII's letters (879, 881).{{sfn|Živković|2012|p=66–67}} Another possible evidence for Roman missionary work among the Croats in the 7th century would be letter of Pope Agatho (c. 681) in which are mentioned bishops active among Slavs. Thomas the Archdeacon in his early 13th century Historia Salonitana also mentioned Johannes de Ravenna, who was sent by the Pope in the mid-7th century to organize church life and restore Archdiocese of Salona, becoming in the process Archbishop of Split.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ivan Ravenjanin (John of Ravenna) | encyclopedia = Croatian Biographical Lexicon |url=https://hbl.lzmk.hr/clanak/105 | first = Stipišić | last = Jakov | year = 2005 |access-date=6 January 2025}}

New population certainly did not completely convert at the time as initially probably encompassed only the Croatian elite members (pagan burial customs ceased in the mid-9th century),{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=219, 228–229}}{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=145–146}} neither such conversions are instantaneous events because missionary work seeks building a Christian mentality.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=219–220}} The additional conversion stages were in the late 8th and early 9th century by Patriarchate of Aquileia and Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg under Frankish supervision, and of pagan Narentines during the reign of Byzantine emperor Basil I (867–886).{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=219}}{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=146}}

First certain signs of Church organization revival and active papal policy can be dated to the mid-or-late-8th century (in relation to the Carolingian political influence), with the Salonitan Archdiocese replaced as ecclesial centre by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar, and then by the Archbishopric of Spalathon (Split) by the late-8th century.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=76–80, 133–135, 151}} The latter initially probably acted independently, without metropolitan bishop.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=150}} Croatia after the Charlemagne's division of areas of Aquileia and Salzburg became under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and some Frankish priests are mentioned in historical sources (Teudebert and Aldefred in Nin, Gumpert in Bijaći).{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=146, 156, 158}} The activity of Lombard missionaires from Principality of Benevento could be argued on the appearance of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, while of Northern Italian missionaries the appearance of St. Ambrose, St. Martha and possibly St. Martin titulary.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=147, 158–159}}

The Pax Nicephori (812) between the Franks and Byzantium did not influence the ecclesial borders and jurisdiction of Croatia.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=152}} By the mid-9th century, Croats have already been fully included in a large European (West) Christian community. Croatian rulers Mislav (835–845), Trpimir I (845–864) and many others were building churches and Benedictine monasteries.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=225}} Pope Nicholas I warned the bishop and clergy of large Diocese of Nin that cannot establish new churches without papal approval, a reference to the foundation of the Diocese of Nin itself.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=135, 152–153}} Its formation was probably an act of Croatian dukes and local clergy to separate from Byzantine influence,{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=152}} because in the second half of the 9th century Byzantine emperor Basil I and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Photios I tried to expand on the already present Christian organization of the Roman Church in the region of former Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum, causing so-called Photian schism (867), managing to get control only of First Bulgarian Empire (871) and Principality of Serbia (873). Before that, Constantinople Patriarchate did not have any jurisdictional pretensions over Western Illyricum.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=231}} The presumed political alliance of duke Zdeslav (878–879) with Byzantium some historians interpreted "as an ecclesiastical submission of Croatia to the Constantinople Patriarchate", but it is doubtful, as would certainly return under Roman Church jurisdiction during duke Branimir.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=231}} However, the Holy See under Pope John VIII did not have complete power over the region of Croatia as would temporarily compete with Patriarch Valpert of the Patriarchate of Aquileia,{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=136}} but eventually in the 880s the bishop of Nin, Teodosius (episcopus Croatorum), got the papal pallium and temporarily until his death in 892 united the Diocese of Nin with Archdiocense of Split.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=153}}

In 879, Croatian duke Branimir (879–892) wrote a letter to Pope John VIII in which he promised him loyalty and obedience. Pope John VIII replied with a letter on 7 June 879, in which he wrote that he celebrated a Mass at the tomb of St Peter on which he invoked God's blessing on Branimir and his people, recognizing Duchy of Croatia as an independent and sovereign state.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=231–232}} Both duke Trpimir (accompanied by son Peter, wife Ventescela, nobles Bribina, Peter, Mary, Presila) and Branimir (accompanied by wife Maruša) underdertook pilgrimages recorded in the Evangelistary of Cividale.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=230}} Pope Leo VI while confirming the 2nd Church Council of Split (928) mentioned that the Archbishop of Split was "in Croatorum terra".{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=221}} The church councils in 925 and 928 were held to discuss about the bishopric of Nin, which bishop Gregory of Nin called himself as "Episcopus Croatensis" (a title which reappeared in the mid-11th century with the formation of Diocese of Knin and disappeared after the establishment of Diocese of Zagreb in late 11th century),{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=221}} and the usage of non-Latin liturgy (forbidden in 925, in fear of heresies in a foreign language and political influence of Byzantium).{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}}{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=239–244}}

Since the 9-10th century in Croatia existed a unique phenomenon in the entire world of Catholicism (except temporary instances in Czechia and Poland), a non-Latin liturgy that was held in Church Slavonic language with Glagolitic script by Cyril and Methodius,{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}}{{cite encyclopedia |title=Glagoljaštvo |url=https://enciklopedija.hr/clanak/glagoljastvo |date=2013 |encyclopedia=Croatian Encyclopedia |publisher=LZMK |access-date=14 February 2025}} approved by Pope Adrian II and Pope John VIII.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=136, 239}}{{cite book |last=Bratulić |first=Josip |author-link=Josip Bratulić |date=2019 |chapter=Glagoljaški lapidarij: O Bašćanskoj ploči, Tajna Bašćanske ploče |title=Aleja glagoljaša: stoljeća hrvatske glagoljice |trans-title=Glagolitic Alley: Centuries of Croatian Glagolism |language=hr |location=Zagreb |publisher=Znamen |isbn=978-953-6008-58-2 |pages=36, 46–47, 55, 61–63, 74, 86, 141–143, 242}} There's still scholarly debate whether Cyril and Methodius or their pupils visited Croatia until the end of the 9th century and whether the Glagolitic script also spread with direct Byantine mission in the mid-11th century.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}}{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=148–149, 303}} The brothers did not baptize the Croats as they were already baptized. In 1060/1061 the Pope Nicholas II declared "under the threat of excommunication forbade ... to be ordained in Holy Orders if they have not learnt Latin",{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}} but Pope Gregory VII sent legate Girard under whom the "national synod of Dalmatian and Croatian bishops (in 1074-1075) rehabilitated Glagolitism".{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=235}} Despite continued disputes in the usage of Slavic language in liturgy, as Glagolitians claimed that the script was created by St. Jerome and were adherents of the Catholic Church and canon law,{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}} the 13th century Pope Innocent IV again officially approved use of Church Slavonic language and the Glagolitic script to Filip bishop of Senj,{{cite journal |last1=Kraft Soić |first1=Vanda |title=OTPIS INOCENTA IV. SENJSKOM BISKUPU (1248.) POD PATRONATOM SV. JERONIMA I. Senjski privilegij iz godine 1248 |journal=Croatica Christiana Periodica |date=2016 |volume=40 |issue=77 |pages=1–23 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=242853 |access-date=24 May 2021}} thus making Croats the only Latin Catholics in the world allowed to use a language other than Latin in their liturgy prior to the Second Vatican Council in 1962.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}} George of Slavonia in c. 1390 recorded that the "Croatian bishop knew both languages, Latin and Croatian, and was the first to celebrate mass sometimes in one and sometimes in the other language", called the Glagolitic script as "alphabetum chrawaticum", being used by the clergy in Istria and other eleven Croatian (arch)bishoprics (Kerbavia, Knin, Krk, Split, Trogir, Šibenik, Zadar, Nin, Rab, Osor, Senj).{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=222}} Glagolitians were supported by Croatian noble families, and Glagolitic script was used by seveal Catholic orders, Franciscans (mostly Third Order of Saint Francis with whom the "Glagolitians" in Croatia are generally associated with), but also Benedictine and Pauline Fathers, and later also Protestants in Istria.

File:Great Schism 1054 with former borders-.png (1054), Croatia and other coastal regions continued to be under jurisdiction of the Holy See.]]

In the period of East–West Schism (1054), Croatian kings Stephen I (1030–1058/1060) and Peter Krešimir IV (1058–1074) confirmed allegiance and support to the reforms of the Holy See.{{sfn|Budak|2018|p=229, 252, 254}} King Demetrius Zvonimir was crowned on 8 October 1075/76{{cite book |last=Mandić |first=Dominik |author-link=Dominik Mandić |title=Rasprave i prilozi iz stare hrvatske povijesti |publisher=Institute of Croatian history |location=Rome |year=1963 |pages=315, 438}} at Salona in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses (known today as the Hollow Church) by Gebizon, a representative of Pope Gregory VII.[http://asv.vatican.va/en/visit/p_nob/p_nob_2s_05.htm Demetrius, Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212054300/http://asv.vatican.va/en/visit/p_nob/p_nob_2s_05.htm |date=2006-02-12 }} He was granted the royal title by Gregory after pledging "Peter's Pence" to the Pope, and took an oath of allegiance to Pope, by which he promised his support in the implementations of the Church reforms in Croatia.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=232–234}}{{cite book |first=Tomislav |last=Raukar |title=Hrvatsko srednjovjekovlje |publisher=Školska knjiga |location=Zagreb |year=1997 |isbn=953-0-30703-9 |page=49}} After the Papal legate crowned him, Zvonimir gave the Benedictine monastery of Saint Gregory in Vrana to the Pope as a sign of loyalty and as an accommodation for papal legates coming to Croatia.{{Cite book|last1=Curta|first1=Florin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YIAYMNOOe0YC|title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250|last2=Curta|first2=Professor of Medieval History Florin|last3=Stephenson|first3=Paul|date=2006-08-31|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81539-0|language=en}}

By the 11th and 12th century existed around 50 Benedictine monasteries, with most important being the Abbey of St. Chrysogonus in Zadar (918/986) favoured by the Trpimirović dynasty, followed by St. Andrew near Pula, St. Stephen and St. Mary in Solin (975), St. Maxim in Korčula (997–998), St. Michael in Limska Draga (before 1000), St. Benedict on island of Lokrum near Dubrovnik (1023), St. Cassian in Poreč (1030), St. Peter on Osor (1044), St. Peter in Supetarska Draga on island of Rab (1059), St. Peter in Selo near Split (1069), St. Mary in Zadar (1065), St. John in Trogir (1108), St. Mary on Mljet (1151), and St. Michael in Kotor (1166) among others.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=226}} Among them St. Mary in Zadar (consecrated in 1091{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=226}}), during abbesses Čika and Vekenega, was particularly influential for the implementation of the Gregorian reform, cultural-religious life, literary traditions and international relations.{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=226–227}}

When Croatia lost its own dynasty and entered into a personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Benedictines were slowly dying out, while the mendicant orders, especially Franciscans and Dominicans were becoming more important. By the end of the 12th century also arrived Cistercians, "important intermediaries in the inclusion of Croatia within the mainstream of Mediaeval Western Christian civilisation".{{sfn|Šanjek|1999|p=227}} Religious and cultural formation of Croats was also strongly influenced by Jesuits. Church writers from northern Croatia and Dubrovnik, which was a free center of the Croatian culture, have done a lot for standardization and expansion of the Croatian literary language.

File:Map of Catholic Dioceses in Eastern Adriatic in 15th Century - Croatian.svg

During the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War that lasted from the late 15th to late 16th century Croats strongly fought against the Turks which resulted in the fact that the westernmost border of the Ottoman Empire and Europe became entrenched on the soil of the Croatian Kingdom. In 1519, Croatian Kingdom was called the Antemurale Christianitatis by Pope Leo X.

The Austrian Empire signed a concordat with the Holy See in 1855 which regulated the Catholic Church within the empire.Ljiljana Dobrovšak. [http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/14470 Ženidbeno (bračno) pravo u 19. stoljeću u Hrvatskoj]

{{See also|Holy See–Yugoslavia relations}}

In Yugoslavia, the Croatian bishops were part of the Bishops' Conference of Yugoslavia.

The situation of the Catholic Church in the new kingdom was affected by the pro-Orthodox policy of the Yugoslav government and the strong influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the country's politics. After the coup of 1929, several Catholic organizations and institutes were closed or dissolved, specially in Croatia, as the Club of Seniorates, the Eagle Movement (Orlovstvo) and the Catholic Action.{{cite journal |last1=Kristo |first1=Jure |title=The Catholic Church in Yugoslavia in the Period between the Two World Wars |journal=CROSBI Hrvatska Znanstvena Bibliografija |date=2011 |pages=177–196 |url=https://www.bib.irb.hr/573625}} Some members of Eastern Catholic churches, such as Croatian Greek Catholics, were persecuted and forced to convert to Orthodox Christianity.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286100641|title=Persecutions of the bosnian Greek catholics in the kingdom of serbs, croats and slovenians / Yugoslavia according to the contemporary catholic press|last=Patafta|first=D.|year=2015|journal=ResearchGate}}

{{Main|Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše}}

File:Stepinac.jpg "in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence (in form of NDH), subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews" {{citation needed|date=August 2018}}]]

In 1941, a Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), was established by the fascist dictator Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše movement. The Ustaše regime pursued a genocidal policy against the Serbs (who were Eastern Orthodox Christians), Jews and Romani.{{cite book |last1=Tomasevich |first1=Jozo |title=War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration |date=2001 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-80477-924-1 |page=555 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqUSGevFe5MC&pg=PA555}}

Historian Michael Phayer wrote that the creation of the NDH was initially welcomed by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and by many Catholic priests. Ante Pavelić was anti-Serb and pro-Catholic, viewing Catholicism as an integral part of Croat culture.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|p=32}} A large number of Catholic priests and intellectuals assumed important roles within the Ustaše.

British writer Peter Hebblethwaite wrote that Pavelić was anxious to get diplomatic relations and a Vatican blessing for the new 'Catholic state' but that "neither was forthcoming".{{cite book |last1=Hebblethwaite |first1=Peter |title=Paul VI: The First Modern Pope |date=1993 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-1-58768-759-4 |pages=153–157, 210–211}} The Archbishop of Zagreb, Aloysius Stepinac, wanted Croatia's independence from the Serb dominated Yugoslav state which he considered to be "the jail of the Croatian nation", so he arranged the audience with Pius XII for Pavelić.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|p=32}}

Vatican under Secretary of State Giovanni Montini (later Pope Paul VI)'s minutes before the meeting noted that no recognition of the new state could come before a peace treaty and that "The Holy See must be impartial; it must think of all; there are Catholics on all sides to whom the [Holy See] must be respectful." The Vatican refused formal recognition of NDH but Pius XII sent a Benedictine abbot Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone as his apostolic visitor. Pius was criticized for his reception of Pavelić but he still hoped that Pavelić would defeat communist Partisans and reconvert many of the 200,000 who had left the Catholic Church for the Serbian Orthodox Church since World War I.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|p=32}}

Many Croatian nationalist clergy supported the Pavelić's regime push to drive out Serbs, Gypsies and Jews, or force their conversion to Catholicism.{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |title=The Third Reich at War |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York |year=2009 |pages=158–159 |isbn=978-1-5942-0206-3}} Phayer wrote that it is well known that many Catholic clerics participated directly or indirectly in Ustaše campaigns of violence.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|p=34-35}} Despite that, Pavelić told Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop that while the lower clergy supported the Ustaše, the bishops, and particularly Archbishop Stepinac, were opposed to the movement because of "Vatican international policy".

Phayer wrote that Stepinac came to be known as "judenfreundlich" ("Jew friendly") to the Nazi-linked Ustaše regime, and suspended a number of priest collaborators in his diocese.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|p=86}}

Archbishop Stepinac made many public statements criticizing developments in the NDH. On Sunday, 24 May 1942, to the irritation of Ustaša officials, he used the pulpit and a diocesan letter to condemn genocide in specific terms, although not mentioning Serbs:

{{blockquote|All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are Gypsies, Black, European, or Aryan all have the same rights.... for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and all violence committed in the name of theories of class, race, or nationality. It is not permissible to persecute Gypsies or Jews because they are thought to be an inferior race.}}

He also wrote a letter directly to Pavelić on 24 February 1943, stating: "The very Jasenovac camp is a stain on the honor of the NDH. Poglavnik! To those who look at me as a priest and a bishop I say as Christ did on the cross: Father forgive them for they know not what they do."[http://www.moljac.hr/biografije/stepinac.htm Alojzije Viktor Stepinac: 1896-1960] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030530160843/http://www.moljac.hr/biografije/stepinac.htm|date=30 May 2003}}

Thirty-one priests were arrested following Stepinac's July and October 1943 explicit condemnations of race murders being read from pulpits across Croatia.{{sfnp|Phayer|2000|pp=46–47}} Martin Gilbert wrote that Stepinac, "who in 1941 had welcomed Croat independence, subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews".Gilbert, Martin. The Righteous - The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, Doubleday (2002), pp. 203, 466; {{ISBN|0385 60100X}}.

According to historian Jozo Tomasevich however, neither Stepinac nor the Croatian Catholic hierarchy or the Vatican ever made a public protest regarding the persecution of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church by the Ustaše and added that "it seems the Catholic Church fully supported the Ustasha regime and its policies". The Catholic Press also praised Pavelić and the Ustaše.

The Yugoslav Partisans executed two priests, Petar Perica and Marijan Blažić, as collaborationists on the island of Daksa on 25 October 1944. The Partisans killed Fra Maksimilijan Jurčić near Vrgorac in late January 1945.{{cite web|url=http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/130986/Default.aspx|title=Partizan Jure Galić: Moji suborci pobili su 30 Vrgorčana|date=28 April 2011|access-date=18 April 2017}}

The National Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) originally foresaw a greater degree of religious freedom in the country. In 1944 ZAVNOH still left open the possibility of religious education in schools.Tanner (1997), p. 164

This idea was scuttled after Yugoslav leader Josip Broz removed secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia Andrija Hebrang and replaced him with hardliner Vladimir Bakarić.Tanner (1997), pg. 165.

In 1945, the retired bishop of Dubrovnik, Josip Marija Carević, was murdered by Yugoslav authorities.{{cite web|url=http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/24040|title=Religious Communities in Croatia from 1945 to 1991|access-date=18 April 2017}} Bishop Josip Srebrnić was sent to jail for two months.Akmadža, Miroslav. Katolička crkva u Hrvatskoj i komunistički režim 1945-1966,

Rijeka: Otokar Keršovani, 2004 (pg. 69)<--ISSN/ISBN added--> After the war, the number of Catholic publications in Yugoslavia decreased from one hundred to only three.Mitja Velikonja. Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Texas A&M University Press, 2003 (pg. 200) <-- ISSN/ISBN -->

In 1946, the Communist regime introduced the Law on State Registry Books which allowed the confiscation of church registries and other documents.Miroslav Akmadža. [http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/44171 Oduzimanje crkvenih matičnih knjiga u Hrvatskoj u vrijeme komunizma] On 31 January 1952, the communist regime officially banned all religious education in public schools.{{cite book | last=Jansen | first=Hans | title=Pius XII | publisher=Kok | publication-place=Kampen | date=2003 | isbn=978-90-435-0736-3 | language=nl | pages=93, 151}}

That year the regime also expelled the Catholic Faculty of Theology from the University of Zagreb, to which it was not restored until democratic changes in 1991.Goldstein, Ivo. Croatia: A History . McGill Queen's University Press, 1999. (pg. 169){{cite web|url=http://www.kbf.hr/stranica.aspx?pageID=5|title=Stranica nije pronađena. – Katolički bogoslovni fakultet|access-date=18 April 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080722061418/http://www.kbf.hr/stranica.aspx?pageID=5|archive-date=22 July 2008}}

In 1984, the Catholic Church held a National Eucharistic Congress in Marija Bistrica.{{cite web|url=http://www.globus.com.hr/Clanak.aspx?BrojID=286&ClanakID=7913|title=How Gospa destroyed the SFRY|publisher=Globus|access-date=18 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921230520/http://www.globus.com.hr/Clanak.aspx?BrojID=286&ClanakID=7913|archive-date=21 September 2008|url-status=dead}} The central Mass held on September 9 was attended by 400,000 people, including 1100 priests, 35 bishops and archbishops, as well as five cardinals. The Mass was led by Cardinal Franz König, a friend of Aloysius Stepinac from their early studies. In 1987 the Bishops' Conference of Yugoslavia issued a statement calling on the government to respect the right of parents to obtain a religious education for their children.{{cite book | last=Ramet | first=Sabrina P. | title=Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies | publisher=Duke University Press | publication-place=Durham, N.C | date=1990 | isbn=978-0-8223-1047-1 | page=194}}

File:Pope Benedict XVI HNK 3 04062011.JPG in front of the Croatian National Theater during Pope Benedict XVI's official state visit in 2011]]

File:Zagrebačka katedrala - misa na 100-tu obljetnicu povratka kostiju P. Zrinskog i F. K. Frankopana.jpg in the Zagreb Cathedral]]

After Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia, the Catholic Church regained its full freedom and influence. First nuncio in Croatia was mons. Giulio Einauldi, appointed on 13 January 1992.{{cite journal|title=Prvi Apostolski nuncij u Hrvatskoj|trans-title=First apostolic nuncio in Croatia|journal=Sveta Cecilija|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/367936|volume=62|issue=2|year=1992|page=25|issn=1849-3106|publisher=Catholic faculty of Theology|location=Zagreb}} Croatian Bishops' Conference was founded on 15 May 1993, by exclusion from the Bishops' Conference of Yugoslavia.

During the Croatian War of Independence, Catholicism and Orthodoxy were often cited as a basic division between Croats and Serbs, which led to a massive destruction of churches (some 1,426 were destroyed or damaged).

The Croatian Bishops' Conference established Croatian Catholic Radio in 1997.{{cite web|url=http://www.glas-koncila.hr/rubrike_reportaza.html?news_ID=11538&PHPSESSID=c7f|title=Hrvatski katolički radio u povodu 10. obljetnice emitiranja|publisher=Glas Koncila|access-date=18 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071028071034/http://www.glas-koncila.hr/rubrike_reportaza.html?news_ID=11538|archive-date=28 October 2007|url-status=dead}}

In the Republic of Croatia, the Catholic Church has defined its legal position as autonomous in some areas, thus making it able to provide religious education in state primary and secondary schools to those students who choose it, establish Catholic schools and conduct pastoral care among the Catholics in the armed forces and police.

Through the ratification of treaties between the Holy See and Croatia on 9 April 1997, treaties that regulate legal issues, cooperation in education and culture, conducting pastoral care among the Catholics in the armed forces and police and financing Church from the state budget came into force. As regards to financing, the Church has received the following amounts of money over the 2000s: 2001; 461.3 bln kunas, 2004–2007; 532 bln kunas, 2008–2011;475.5 bln kunas, 2012–2013; 523.5 bln kunas, plus around 200 million kunas per each year for teachers of religious studies in schools, around 60 million kunas for maintenance churches which are considered to be a cultural heritage etc.{{cite web|url=http://www.jutarnji.hr/ekskluzivno--koliko-se-iz-proracuna-izdvaja-za-vjerske-zajednice--sest-milijardi-kuna-hrvatska-je-platila-kaptolu-u-10-godina-/1236185/|title=Prvi Put Dostupni Podaci o Uplatama Od 2003. godine Kaptol je od države dobio 6 milijardi kuna|access-date=18 April 2017}}

The Catholic Church in Croatia in modern times is very active in social and political life. It has implemented a number of actions in conservative spirit in order to promote its values such as: non-working Sunday, punishment of the crimes of the communist era, introducing religious education in schools, protection of marriage as the union of a man and a woman (2013 referendum), opposition to abortion (campaigning for "protecting human life from conception to natural death"), opposition to euthanasia, opposition to natural methods of family planning and the treatment of infertility, and opposition to artificial birth control methods.

File:St. Peter's Cathedral, Dakovo.jpg]]

File:Kathedrale St. Anastasia.jpg]]

The published data from the 2011 Croatian census included a crosstab of ethnicity and religion which showed that a total of 3,697,143 Catholic believers (86.28% of the total population) was divided between the following ethnic groups:{{cite web | work = Census of Population, Households and Dwellings 2011 | url = http://www.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/census2011/results/htm/E01_01_12/E01_01_12.html | title = 4. Population by ethnicity and religion | publisher = Croatian Bureau of Statistics | access-date = 2012-12-17}}

• 3,599,038 Catholic Croats
• 22,331 Catholic believers of regional affiliation
• 15,083 Catholic Italians
• 9,396 Catholic Hungarians
• 8,521 Catholic Czechs
• 8,299 Catholic Roma
• 8,081 Catholic Slovenes
• 7,109 Catholic Albanians
• 3,159 Catholic Slovaks
• 2,776 Catholic believers of undeclared nationality
• 2,391 Catholic Serbs
• 1,913 Catholic believers of other nationalities
• 1,847 Catholic Germans
• 1,692 Catholic Ruthenians
• 1,384 Catholic believers of unknown nationality
• 1,339 Catholic Ukrainians
• other individual ethnicities (under 1,000 people each)

File:Map of Roman Catholic Dioceses in Croatia.svg

Within Croatia the hierarchy consists of:

The bishops are organized into the Croatian Conference of Bishops, which is presided by the Archbishop of Zadar Mons. Želimir Puljić.

There are also historical bishoprics, including:

• Diocese of Senj-Modruš

As of 2009, there were 1570 Catholic parishes in Croatia.{{cite web|url=http://arhiva.nacional.hr/clanak/57295/kad-tata-sluzi-misu|title=Kad tata služi misu – Nacional.hr|access-date=18 April 2017}}

There are three Franciscan provinces in the country:

• the Franciscan Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius based in Zagreb,
• the Franciscan Province of Saint Jerome based in Zadar and
• the Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer based in Split.

• Croatian Dominican Province
• Croatian Province of the Society of Jesus
• Croatian Salesian Province of Saint Don Bosco
• Croatian Carmelite Province of Saint Joseph the Father

Although the vast majority of Croatians declare themselves as Catholics, a certain share of them do not follow the Church's teaching on moral and social issues. According to a Pew Research poll from 2017, only 27% of respondents attended mass regularly, 25% supported the Church's stance on contraception, 43% supported the Church's stance on ordination of women and 38% thought abortion should be illegal in most cases. On the other hand, 66% supported the Church's stance on same-sex marriage.{{cite web |title=Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe |url=http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/05/09154356/Central-and-Eastern-Europe-Topline_FINAL-FOR-PUBLICATION.pdf |website=Pew Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326224803/https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/05/09154356/Central-and-Eastern-Europe-Topline_FINAL-FOR-PUBLICATION.pdf |archive-date=2023-03-26 |url-status=live}}

• Aljmaš
• Ludbreg
• Our Lady of Marija Bistrica
• Our Lady of Sinj
• Our Lady of Trsat

• Zlatan Ibrahimović
• Josip Bozanić
• Ivan Burik, the only Catholic priest killed in the Croatian War of Independence
• Juraj Dobrila, 19th-century bishop from Istria
• Ivan Grubišić, priest from Dalmatia, Member of Parliament 2011–2015
• Marija Krucifiksa Kozulić, established the only indigenous community of nuns founded in the Archdiocese of Rijeka
• Franjo Kuharić
• Antun Mahnić, initiator of the Croatian Catholic Movement
• Ivan Merz, blessed layman and Catholic activist
• Alojzije Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb during World War II
• Josip Juraj Strossmayer
• Franjo Šeper
• Mihalj Šilobod Bolšić (1724–1787), a Roman Catholic priest, mathematician, writer, and musical theorist primarily known for writing the first Croatian arithmetic textbook Arithmatika Horvatzka (published in Zagreb, 1758)

{{Portal|Croatia}}

• Croatia–Holy See relations
• Caritas Croatia
• Croatian Catholic News Agency

{{Reflist|3}}

• {{cite book |first=Neven |last=Budak |author-link=Neven Budak |year=2018 |title=Hrvatska povijest od 550. do 1100. |trans-title=Croatian history from 550 until 1100 |url=http://www.leykam-international.hr/publikacija.php?id=167 |publisher=Leykam international |isbn=978-953-340-061-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Dvornik |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Dvornik |date=1956 |title=The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DEoLAQAAIAAJ |location=Boston |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}
• {{Cite book|last=Phayer|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Phayer|title=The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965|year=2000|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253337252|url=https://archive.org/details/catholicchurchho00phay|url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book|last=Phayer|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Phayer|title=Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War|year=2008|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253349309|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgTZAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{cite book |last=Šanjek |first=Franjo |author-link=Franjo Šanjek |date=1999 |chapter=Church and Christianity |title=Croatia in the Early Middle Ages: A Cultural Survey |editor=Ivan Supičić |url=https://archive.org/details/croatiainearlymi0000unse |language=en |location=London, Zagreb |publisher=Philip Wilson Publishers, AGM |isbn=0856674990 |pages=217–236}}
• {{cite book |first=Marcus|last=Tanner|title=Croatia: A Nation Forged in War|url=https://archive.org/details/croatianationfor0000tann_q6e5|url-access=registration

|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1997|isbn=0-300-07668-1|ref= Tanner_1997}}

• {{cite book|last=Živković|first=Tibor|author-link=Tibor Živković|title=De conversione Croatorum et Serborum: A Lost Source|year=2012|location=Belgrade|publisher=The Institute of History|url=https://www.academia.edu/1231887}}

{{commons category|Roman Catholic Church in Croatia}}

• [http://www.hbk.hr/ Croatian Conference of Bishops]

{{Catholicism in Europe}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catholicism In Croatia}}

Croatia

Category:Culture of Croatia