Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States

my article “Interfaith Dialogue versus Recent Hatred: Serbian Orthodoxy and
Croatian Catholicism from the Second Vatican Council to the Yugoslav War,
1965–1992,” Religion, State and Society 29, (March 2001), pp. 39–66.
66. Nedjeljna Dalmacija, 26 November 1989. Franić recorded the historic
prayer in his chronicle of diocesan affairs as follows: “Ecumenical prayer in the
Cathedral was held on the occasion of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity
together with the archpriest Marko Plavsˇa as representative of the Orthodox
bishop of Dalmatia, and with Mr Stojanac Marko on behalf of Orthodox church
community in Split. The archpriest Plavsˇa read in the crowded cathedral Ephesians
4: 1–7 and 13–21 and when finished, gave the bishop a fraternal hug. The
congregation was moved, many had tears in their eyes. The archbishop addressed
the Orthodox with special words, greeting them as beloved Christian
brethren.” Vjesnik biskupije splitske i makarske, no. 1 (1966).
67. Juraj Kolarić, Pravoslavni (The Orthodox) (Zagreb: Veritas, 1985), p. 187.
68. A lengthy article about this movement and interfaith relations during the
communist era was published by this author in 2001. See Vjekoslav Perica, “Interfaith
Dialogue versus Recent Hatred: Serbian Orthodoxy and Croatian Catholicism
from the Second Vatican Council to the Yugoslav War, 1965–1992 Religion,
State and Society 29, 1 (March 2001), pp. 39–66.
69. Petar Ćebić, Ekumenizam i vjerska tolerancija u Jugoslaviji (Ecumenism and
religious tolerance in Yugoslavia) (Belgrade: NIRO Mladost, 1988), pp. 170, 182.
70. Quoted in English translation from Serbo-Croatian in Bulajić, The Role of
the Vatican in the Breakup of the Yugoslav State, p. 183.
71. According to a Serbian church historian, the Serbian Patriarchate received
from the World Council of Church generous financial support: “the tremendous
help ...hadkeptpouring in from Geneva ...in1958: $18,558,933; in
1959: $9,128,749; in 1960: $9,339,189; in 1961: $5,960,042.” Paul Pavlovich,
The History of the Serbian Orthodox Church (Toronto: Serbian Heritage Books,
1989), p. 4.
72. In 1974 in Greece, Popović published a study on ecumenism in which
he condemned both factions of the global ecumenical movement, that is, the
so-called Geneva ecumenism, dominated by American Evangelicals, and Roman
ecumenism, launched by the Second Vatican Council. Popović designated
the Orthodox Church as the only true and credible spiritual force capable of
accomplishing the ideal of Christian unity. Justin Popović, Pravoslavna crkva i
ekumenizam (The Orthodox Church and ecumenism) (Salonika: Hilandar,
1974), p. 190.
73. Dimitrije Bogdanović, “Dijalog kakav nam ne treba” (A dialogue we do
not need), Vesnik, no. 525–526, 1971. Quoted in Ćebić, Ekumenizam i vjerska
tolerancija u Jugoslaviji, p. 168.
74. Quoted in Ćebić, Ekumenizam i vjerska tolerancija u Jugoslaviji, p. 133.
75. Bogdanović, “Dijalog kakav nam ne treba,” p. 168.
76. Savezna komisija za vjerska pitanja (Federal Commission for Religious
Affairs), “Informacija broj 26, Povjerljivo—O nekim aspektima stanja i djelovanja
verskih zajednica u Jugoslaviji” (Information no. 26, confidential—On some aspects
of the situation and activity of the religious communities in Yugoslavia)
Belgrade, December 1969, p. 12.
77. In the first sentence of the brief paragraph on religion (in which religion
was described as a product of backwardness), it was written that religion
should not be fought against by administrative repression—however, the
program explicitly said that party members must be atheistic Marxists. For an
notes to pages 32–35 257