RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS FROM THE ORTHODOX TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CONFESSION IN THE TERRITORY OF THE ARCHDEACONATE OF VAŠKA (VIROVITICA , SLATINA , ORAHO VICA , NAŠICE ) AT THE TIME OF THE NDH (1941-1945) Cover Image

VJERSKI PRIJELAZI S PRAVOSLAVNE NA RIMOKATOLIČKU VJEROISPOVIJEST NA PODRUČJU VAŠČANSKOG ARHIĐAKONATA (VIROVITICA, SLATINA, ORAHOVICA, NAŠICE) U VRIJEME NDH (1941.-1945.)
RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS FROM THE ORTHODOX TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CONFESSION IN THE TERRITORY OF THE ARCHDEACONATE OF VAŠKA (VIROVITICA , SLATINA , ORAHO VICA , NAŠICE ) AT THE TIME OF THE NDH (1941-1945)

Author(s): Filip Škiljan
Contributor(s): Mica Orban Kljajić (Translator)
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Regional Geography, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Hrvatski institut za povijest
Keywords: religious conversions; Serbs; Second World War; Independent State of Croatia (NDH); Virovitica; Slatina; Našice; Orahovica;

Summary/Abstract: The area of the Vaška archdeaconate comprised during the period between the wars the districts of Virovitica, Slatina and Našice. According to the census from 1931, somewhat less than one third of the population was Orthodox. In this paper the author researches into the conversions from the Orthodox to the Roman Catholic confession in this area during the period between 1941 and 1945. The research is based on the records from archival fonds such as the Archbishop’s Clerical Board of the Archbishop’s Archive in Zagreb, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice and Worship of the Croatian State Archive. Based on the list of names of converted persons, i.e. of those who filed an application to convert, in the area of 23 parishes in the territory of the Vaška Archdeaconate, the author concludes that no fewer than 6,685 Orthodox persons filed an application to convert to the Roman Catholic confession, mainly from April 1941 to April 1942. According to the preserved documents from the Archbishop’s Archive in Zagreb and the Croatian State Archive, more conversions actually took place; however, no list of names of those who filed an application to convert or of those who did convert is preserved. Such a problem arose in the parish of Voćin where people converted collectively, in huge numbers, and the missionaries, conducting the religious conversions, documented merely the number of the converts. In this paper the author discuses the types of individual conversions.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 17
  • Page Range: 233-251
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Croatian