Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States

appealed for international recognition. The Holy See finally granted it. The
pope accepted the explanation of the Yugoslav crisis given by the Croatian
episcopate and Croat clergy in the Curia.
In addition, the Vatican’s decision was determined by the fact that the
pope never trusted the Milosˇevic regime and eventually lost patience in expecting
any moderation from the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is worth noting
that as early as 31 May 1991, Pope John Paul II released a “Letter to
European Bishops on the Changes in Central and Eastern Europe” in which
the Vatican made an attempt to invoke the Council’s ecumenical friendship
toward Orthodox churches. Furthermore, during the same period, the Holy
See successfully worked together with the patriarchate of Moscow on the
mitigation of the serious conflict between Catholicism and Orthodoxy in
western Ukraine. 170 According to a high official of the Moscow patriarchate,
Moscow and the Vatican also made an attempt to mitigate tensions in Yugoslavia,
but the success from the Ukraine could not be repeated. 171 Consequently,
the pope entrusted management of the Balkan crisis to the Romebased
ecumenical and conflict resolution body called the Community of
Saint Egidio. This body worked to arrange papal meetings with Serbian
Church leaders and papal visits to Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Macedonia,
especially during the papal visits to Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia in
1994 and 1997. According to Belgrade sources, the Holy Synod of the Serbian
Orthodox Church rejected these initiatives for various reasons. 172
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