With the educated classes interned or across the border, the priest was often the one who remained in the occupied territory. The Italian authorities regarded him as the “chief agitator”; Slovene nationalists noted that only the clergy had stayed at their posts in full.
Had the clergy too followed the example of the lay intelligentsia, “our people would be a flock without a shepherd, an army without leaders”.
Archbishop Sedej in Gorizia
In November 1918 Archbishop Frančišek Borgia Sedej of Gorizia supported the appeals of the National Council in a special circular. When the Italians occupied the region, he issued a pastoral letter instructing priests to submit to the authorities until the peace conference had spoken the last word, and not to talk politics from the pulpit. The Italian authorities later accused him of using this instruction to stop Italian priests, too, from demonstrating for annexation.
Sedej was a legitimist and insisted on loyalty to authority. In spring 1920 he did not support the Slovene priests' demand for the Old Slavonic liturgy and a separate diocese for the Slovenes and Croats of Italy, since he was also shepherd to Italian and Friulian believers. The author reads his caution as a deliberate decision to stay at his post at the price of concessions, for the sake of his Slovene flock: he was the only Slovene bishop to keep his see into the 1930s. The campaign waged against him by the priests Tarlao, Castelliz and Del Fabro ended with his resignation in 1931.
Bishop Karlin in Trieste
Andrej Karlin, the Slovene Bishop of Trieste-Koper, refused to celebrate the festive mass demanded by Italian nationalists when the Italian army arrived in November 1918, and did not welcome the governor as the political representatives did. The nationalist press attacked him for a year; then a group of arditi broke into the bishop's residence, wrecked it and forced Karlin to resign.
The new bishop, Angelo Bartolomasi, a military bishop during the war, introduced himself to the faithful as “the first Italian bishop” and had not a word for the Slovenes in his first message. Edinost wrote that Karlin had been removed for the very purpose for which Bartolomasi had been sent. That judgment proved hasty: in 1921, at the height of fascist violence, Bartolomasi took a firm stand on the side of persecuted Slovene priests and later became a victim of fascism himself.
Bishop Mahnič interned
Anton Mahnič, Bishop of Krk, born in Kobdilj on the Karst, was accused of disobeying the order of the military authorities that banned worship in the vernacular. He was interned from 4 April 1919 to 11 February 1920. Baron Monti, who handled religious affairs at the Italian Ministry of Finance, reported to Foreign Minister Sforza that Mahnič had suffered many injustices and that most of the charges for which he had been interned were invented.
Priests under surveillance
Almost every report of the occupying authorities contains complaints against Slovene and Croatian priests. In Istria they were said to preach openly against Italy; in the Gorizia region they allegedly advised the faithful against acquaintance with Italian soldiers. In a plan of December 1918 General Badoglio recommended winning the Littoral clergy over directly and removing the most capable priests, “because they hold the believing population in their hands”. In May 1919 the governorate proposed interning the parish priests Ivan Kunšič of Cerkno, Ivan Kenda of Novaki, Alojz Kraševec of Bazovica and the parish priest of Camporosso (Žabnice).
When the naval command in Pula proposed banning sermons in Slovene and Croatian, Governor Petitti replied that this would offend the religious feelings of the population and only harm Italy; sermons in the vernacular should remain, provided they contained no statements against the occupation.
Priests in politics
Priests were also among the initiators of political life. The chaplain Virgilij Šček led the Christian Social current in Edinost and was elected to the Rome parliament in May 1921. In June 1920 the parish priest Ivan Rejec demanded that Edinost adopt a social and economic programme, because “we must not leave the fight against capitalism as a monopoly to the socialists”. The editor Engelbert Besednjak came from Ljubljana. In 1922 the Christian Socials broke away from the Trieste liberals and founded their own society.
The Italian People's Party (Partito popolare) tried to win Slovene Catholics with promises of autonomy and equality. Its leader, Don Luigi Sturzo, wrote to Salata, head of the Office for the New Provinces, in August 1920 that the Slovenes of the Gorizia region were indignant because they did not have even the freedom they had enjoyed under Austria, and that by closing secondary schools the authorities were instilling hatred instead of love for Italy.
Sources
- Kacin-Wohinz, M. (1972): Primorski Slovenci pod italijansko zasedbo 1918–1921, pp. 44, 98, 112, 160–163, 221–224, 238–242.
- Čermelj, L. (1965): Slovenci in Hrvatje pod Italijo med obema vojnama. Ljubljana.
- Klen, D. (1955): Neki dokumenti o svećenstvu u Istri između dva rata. Zagreb.