Demographic and Political Influences on the Confessional Picture of East Slavonia

• Main Author: Antun Šundalić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies 2003-03-01
• Series: Migracijske i Etniĉke Teme
• Subjects: confessional affiliation; Roman Catholics; Eastern Orthodox; other religious groups; politics; religion
• Online Access: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/12053
• ISSN: 1333-2546; 1848-9184

East Slavonia is a region with a recognisable agrarian tradition and a culture specific to itself, in which religion has had great importance. Concretely, through a long period of history, Roman Catholicism was the most extensive confession and it has left the deepest traces in the spirituality, and also in the daily life of the area. Despite a dynamic past, frequent changes of states and rulers, penetration of Islam and Eastern Orthodoxy and a large number of other religious communities, Catholicism remained dominant in terms of numbers of adherents and also in regard to its influence on social processes in Slavonia and Baranja. The new historical reality in Croatia emphasised even more this presence of Catholicism. This paper studies the development and proportions of the Roman Catholic population in relation to the Eastern Orthodox and other communities in the example of six cities in Slavonia and Baranja. It confirms that just as at the end of the 19th century, at the end of the 20th century Roman Catholics is the most numerous confession: Roman Catholics make up 4/5 and more of the population. The paper also analyses “phases” in the relationship between politics and religion during the last ten years, and also indicates a more pronounced daily awareness of confessional adherence in East Slavonia, where the traces of the war are still very fresh, and where confessional and ethnic (national) affiliations even today remain indivisible.