RELIGION IN THE BALKANS

New Zealand Tablet, 3 April 1913, Page 17

RELIGION IN THE BALKANS

THE OUTLOOK FOR CATHOLICS

The struggle between the Christian West and Islam began with the invasion of the Mongols, about the year 1230 A.D. The Turks, who were living in the country to the south-east of the Sea of Aral, were thus driven towards the west. They numbered about 50,000 souls. Gradually they spread over Asia Minor and Brussa became their capital. They made great progress under Osman, who ruled from 1281-1326, and from whom the Empire took its name. Soon Asia Minor was too restricted a place for them and they conquered Galipoli. Murad I. extended his empire as far as Adrianople. In 1389 he overcame the Serbs, and three years later his successor, Bajasid, conquered and broke up the kingdom of Bulgaria. He continued his victorious march with irresistible force, conquered Macedonia, Thessaly, and Hellas. Sigismund, King of Hungary, led against him a crusade which counted in its ranks the flower of German and French knighthood. Bajasid beat the crusaders at Nicopolis, and boasted that soon his horses would eat their oats in the rooms of the Vatican. But things changed. Bajasid was beaten by the Tartars at the battle of Angora. A few years later he died in prison, lo the fact (says Elise Flury in the Catholic Times) that the Tartars did not know how to utilise their victory, the iurkish Empire owes its survival at the time. The Population of the Balkan Peninsula. ~ Th nnn alk n n .i? Insula , has a P°P" lati <™ of about 2d,UUU,OOO. Catholics number about half a millionwith a total population 0 f 6-7 millions, there are only about millions of Turks. Including the Albanians, the Mahomedans, number about 21, millions The majority of the inhabitants of the" Balkan Peninsula belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, whose head is the Czar of Russia. The various Slavonic races were converted to Christianity in the ninth and tenth centuries. St, Cyril and St. Methodius, the apostles of the Slavs were in close communion with Rome. They lived as indicated, before the Eastern Schism. But when the East separated from the West and severedhts communion with Rome, the fact that St. Cyril and St Methodius had come from Constantinople to evangelise the Slavs was taken advantage of in order to draw these races into, the Schism. The Poles alone could not be foiced into a separation from Rome, but remained faithdto the Catholic religion. En passant a word of welldeserved praise mav Tip* sairi „£ ±i,„ t> i__ t _ •. £ i-t ~' J ~r T""* Ox buc X uiea. in spite of the reverses of their unhappy country, in spite of persecution at the hands of their Russian and German conquerors, they have remained staunch in their

The ‘ Orthodox ’ Church. The condition of the ‘ Orthodox ’ Church in the Balkans is the same as in Russia. It is to all intents and purposes a civil institution, one of the departments of the State. The Government sees in bishops and priests but servants of the State, subject to the Minister of the Interior. Without any regard to Canon Law they are dismissed if they dare to think differently from the Government, and are not its blind tools. The conscience of the official of the State is the only authority, and want of subordination is an offence which must be severely punished. Intolerance in Servia. 'Servians to-day the only country of Europe in which the Catholic religion is forbidden by law. The only two Catholic priests in the land are the chaplains of the Austrian-Hungarian Embassy. The future will show whether the promise of King Peter to give entire freedom to the Catholic Church will be carried out. The Orthodox Church in Servia is in a sad condition. Even several of its bishops have been imprisoned for crime. Some of them can neither read nor write. The so-called Old Catholics have made repeated attempts to join forces with the Orthodox Church. In Montenegro the Catholic Church enjoys freedom since King Nicholas entered into a Concordat with the Holy See. Montenegro is an archdiocese with its seat at Antivari. The King of Roumania is a Catholic. In this kingdom the Catholic religion is tolerated. The Rev. P. Raymund Netzhammer, of the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, has been appointed Arshbishop of Bukarest. He taught mathematics for many years at the College of Einsiedeln, and is the author of well-known works. Archbishop Netzhammer enjoys great respect and popularity throughout Roumania. Bulgaria is divided into two vicariates. Mgr. Cleto, a Capuchin Father, has just been appointed Bishop of Philippopolis by the Holy Father, He had been stationed at Bataltscha, in Bulgaria. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is a son of the ambitious Princess Clementine and grandson of Louis Philip. He was brought up as a Catholic, and his first-born son was baptised in the religion of his parents. His mother was the pious daughter of the Duke of Parma. Anxious to please his great patron, the Czar of Russia, King Ferdinand had the heir to the throne re-baptised in the Orthodox Church, the Czar being his godfather. This act broke the mother’s heart. One of the most zealous and popular priests of Sofia is a Swiss Capuchin Father. Greece has about 25,000 Catholic subjects. Officially the Catholic ■ Church is tolerated, but the toleration is still very limited. It is to be hoped that Catholics will not be granted less freedom in the territories which may be annexed by the Allies than they have enjoyed under the rule of the Turks. France, which persecutes religion and the . religious at home, and Germany, which trembles • lest its safety might be jeopardised if the Jesuits laid foundations within its borders, vie with one another in protecting the Christians in the Turkish Empire. The reasons are political, but the protection is, nevertheless, a welcome safeguard for settlers in Turkey and pilgrims to the Holy Land. Russia and the Future. Much o has been written about the present position and the probable outlook for the Catholic Church in the Balkans. A great deal will depend on the amount of influence and pressure Russia will be able to bring to bear on the Governments of the various States. The smaller that pressure is the greater will be the chances of reunion with Rome.