RIMOKATOLIČKA CRKVA I HRVATSTVO U CRNOJ GORI I BOKI U PRVOJ POLOVINI XX VIJEKA
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CROAT NATIONALISM IN MONTENEGRO AND BOKA IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: In Montenegro, Boka, and Primorje Croat nationalism advanced in phases, from the time it first appeared towards the end of the 19th century, depending on the religious and political actions o f the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Croat political elite (i.e., the Frankovci, the Croatian Peasants Party). The author focuses particularly on campaigns (manifestations) aimed at spreading Croat nationalism such as the First Croat Catholic Meeting in 1900, the change of the Illyrian Institute o f St. Jerome into a Croat institution, the celebration o f the millennium-long existence of the Croat Kingdom in 1925, and the events that took place on the eve of the war in Yugoslavia, which represented the culmination of this process. Towards the end of the thirties the old dream of Croatia occupying the sub-Danube and Adriatic area was realized with the forming of Banovina Hrvatska. The synchronized actions of clerical and laic supporters of Croat nationalism resulted in a political formation characterized by Roman Catholicism and Croat nationalism. New ideas of so-called „red Croat nationalism” coming from Zagreb, the center of Croat nationalism, were embraced by enthusiasts front Montenegro, who subsequently became the greatest advocates of the theory claiming that the Montenegrin Roman Catholics in old Duklja embodied in fact the beginning of Croat national awareness in Montenegro.

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