QUESTIONS OF RELIGION AND FAITH IN ZAGREB’S LIBERAL PRESS IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN 1848 AND 1852

U radu se prikazuje o kojim su vjerskim pitanjima pisali zagrebački liberalni listovi Saborske novine, Slavenski Jug, Südslawische Zeitung, Jugoslavenske novine te Novine dalmatinsko-hèrvatsko-slavonske/Narodne Novine i Agramer Zeitung za revolucije i u razdoblju pripremanja neoapsolutističkog sustava. Navedeni listovi nisu jednakim intenzitetom pratili vjerski aspekt društvenog života, ali su se, u većoj ili manjoj mjeri, zalagali za reformu Katoličke crkve u duhu liberalnog katolicizma.In this article author treats the question of religious and faith problems that were discussed on the pages of the liberal newspapers in Zagreb in the above mentioned period. Treated publications are Saborske novine [Parliament News], Slavenski Jug [Slavic South], Südslawichse Zeitung, Jugoslavenske novine [Yugoslavian News], Novine dalma-tinsko-hèrvatsko-slavonske [Dalmatian-Croatian-Slavonian Newspapers] and Agramer Zeitung. The editorial boards of these newspapers treated religious problems accordingly to their liberal and national standpoints. The articles in these newspapers do not treat the religious questions as theological issue but only as moral, social, political and national matters in the context of Catholic and Orthodox Churches’ position in Croatia. Therefore, one can note that the editorial boards supported reform of the Catholic Church in Croa-tia, in order to integrate Church in the civic society that was in the process of its making. The questions that were treated were such as introduction of the national language in liturgy, abolition of celibate, reducing of the ecclesiastical discipline, diminishing of the Church infl uence on primary education etc. Moreover, these newspapers supported idea of separation of the national bishoprics in Croatia and Slavonia from the archbishopric in Kalocs, which was connected with a concept of confessional union among the South Slavs. For example, on the pages of Südslawichse Zeitung one could easily read very po-sitive attitude towards Orthodox Church because of its close contact with the national and social life of community. In a word, the press supported idea of confessional equality and adaptation of Catholic (and Orthodox) Church to the need of the modern society – they maintained ideas of Catholic liberalism, though regarding some question the press tried to intervene in internal ecclesiastical issues (such as language of liturgy and question of celibate). Critical attitude towards Catholic Church can be found in all these newspapers (except in the Agramer Zeitung), probably because of the Church’s universal and non-national stand-point, which was connected with ecclesiastical tendencies to maintain its privileged position in Austria. However, this critic was not a sign of the press’ animosity towards Church, since all the newspapers saw Church as an important social and moral factor of the contemporary Croatia civic society