Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States

27. In his 1972 Easter message, “Nadati se protiv svake nade” (Hope against
Hope), Franić urged dialogue and forgiveness : “We believe in a renaissance of
familial, patriotic, and international love,” he wrote, “although we live in hard
times, we remain full of optimism.” Frane Franić, Nadati se protiv svake nade:
Uskrsˇnja poslanica Dr Frane Franiča Nadbiskupa Splitsko-Makarskog (Split: Nadbiskupski
ordinarijat, April 1972), p. 11.
28. Glas koncila, 6 February 1972.
29. Glas koncila, 19 March 1972 (my translation).
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Glas koncila, 25 June 1972.
33. In April 1971 militant Croatian exiles assassinated the Yugoslav ambassador
to Sweden, Vladimir Rolović. In January 1972 a Croatian terrorist group
hijacked and downed a Swedish airliner; Croat exile groups were also behind the
bombing of the Vienna-Belgrade train in 1970 and masterminded the raid of
the 19-member armed guerilla group in Bosnia in July 1972; and so on (see
chapter 2).
34. Komisija za odnose s vjerskim zajednicama Izvrsˇnog vijeća Sabora Socijalistićke
Republike Hrvatske, “Zabiljesˇka o razgovoru predsjednika komisije Dr.
Zlatka Frida i Dr. Ive Petrinovića, člana Centralnog komiteta Saveza komunista
Hrvatske s Nadbiskupskog Dr. Franom Franičem odrzˇanog 17 July 1972 u prostorijama
Nadbiskupskog ordinarijata u Splitu.” (Memo on Conversation between
the chairman, Zlatko Frid, and Dr. Ivo Petrinović, member of the Central Committee
of the League of Communists, with Dr. Frane Franić, the archbishop of
Split-Makarska, held in the Archdiocesan Office in Split of 17 July 1972), confidential,
Pov. 08-41/1-72 (Zagreb, 1 August 1972).
35. For example, the prominent Croatian nationalist Stipe Mesić said in an
interview that one of the Croat nationalist leaders, Marko Veselica, turned into
a “religious fanatic” after the disaster of 1971 and came close to the Catholic
Church, although he had earlier been an atheist. Slobodna Dalmacija, 31 January
2000.
36. According to Croatian Church historians, in the year 641 Croatian rulers
established ties with Pope John IV. The pope dispatched Abbot Martin to the
Slavic-populated lands of Dalmatia and Istria to redeem Christian slaves and
bring to Rome the relics of local Christian martyrs. Peričić and S ˇ kvorčević, Trinaest
stoljeća krsˇčanstva u Hrvata, pp. 19–20.
37. Ibid., p. 300.
38. S ˇ imundzˇa, eds., Godina velikoga zavjeta (Year of the Great Covenant) (Split:
Crkva u svijetu, 1977).
39. On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the
jubilee “Thirteen Centuries of Christianity in the Croat People,” the church press
asserted that 120,000 people gathered at the Mass in Solin on 12 September
1976. Glas koncila, no. 23, 9 June 1996.
40. The prayer led by the Archbishop Kuharić mentioned the following
shrines: “Our Lady of the Isle” (southern Croatia); “Our Lady of Bistrica” (the
national shrine in northern Croatia near Zagreb); “the Gospa of Sinj” (southern
Croatia–Dalmatian hinterland), “the Gospa of Trsat” (northern Adriatic littoral);
“the Madonna of Olovo” (Bosnia); “the Gospa of Siroki Brijeg” (western Herzegovina);
“the Madonna of Letnica” (Kosovo-Serbia); “the Madonna of Aljmas”
(eastern Slavonia); “the Madonna of Vocin (Vojvodina); “the Gospa of Krasno”
(northwestern Croatia).
266 notes to pages 61–64