Land reform enforcement on ecclesiastical estates in the Đakovo deanery 1945-1948

U radu je prikazan proces provedbe Zakona o agrarnoj reformi i kolonizaciji na posjedima župa i ostalih crkvenih ustanova na području Đakovačkog dekanata. U uvodnom je dijelu rada prikazan tijek donošenja Zakona na saveznoj razini, a zatim i za područje Federalne Hrvatske, odnosno Narodne Republike Hrvatske, te njegove glavne odredbe. Reakcija Katoličke crkve na navedeni zakon bila je izrazito negativna, budući je zakon bio osobito oštar prema crkvenim posjedima i težio je osiromašenju Katoličke crkve i slabljenju njenog utjecaja u društvu. U nastavku je u kratkim crtama prikazan i odnos biskupa Antuna Akšamovića prema komunističkim vlastima, ali i prema Zakonu o agrarnoj reformi i kolonizaciji te njegovo posredovanje u osiguranju povoljnijeg položaj za Biskupiju tijekom provedbe zakona. Središnji dio rada prati provedbu agrarne reforme na posjedima devet župa Đakovačkog dekanata, biskupijskim posjedima i posjedu Kongregacije sestara Sv. Križa u Đakovu. Svi brojčani podaci na kraju su prikazani i tablično.This paper gives a review of the process of the enforcement of the Land Reform and Colonisation Law on the parish estates and lands of other ecclesiastical institutions in the Đakovo Deanery. The introductory part of this work presents the legislation at a federal level and later in the Federal Republic of Croatia, i.e. the People’s Republic of Croatia, as well as its principal regulations. The reaction of the Catholic Church to the law was extremely negative because it was extremely severe in relation to ecclesiastical estates and had the tendency to impoverish the Catholic Church and weaken its infl uence on society. Further, the relation of Bishop Antun Akšamović to the communist government is described in brief, as well as his attitude to the Land Reform and Colonisation Law and his mediating role in securing a more favourable position for the Diocese during implementation of the law. The central section of this work describes the implementation of land reform in estates of nine parishes of the Đakovo Deanery, in estates of the diocese and the estate of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Đakovo. All numerical data are illustrated in tabular form at the end of the work. After the end of World War II the communist government rapidly started to settle property relations and to allocate lands to those cultivating it, to the peasants. For this purpose the Federal Land Reform and Colonisation Law was enacted on August 23, 1945; on November 24 of that same year a corresponding law for the territory of Federal Croatia was passed. Since this law was overly severe to ecclesiastical property and the divestment of land above 10 ha was foreseen by that law, its enforcement further exacerbated the relations between the Catholic Church and the state. During the hard post-war period, when the Catholic Church, like the majority of the population, was left in dire straits, the land reform dealt a heavy blow from which the Church could not recover for a long period of time. All over the country, including the territory of the Đakovo Deanery, the Catholic Church lost most of its high-quality lands, covered by the land reform, lands that had up to that time been the major source of income for the livelihood of the clergy as well as for church institutions and organizations. The main motive for the communist government to pass most of the laws, such as the Land Reform and Colonisation Law, was the assumption that by being deprived of its material basis the Catholic Church would be frustrated in its intention to continue to be the ideological and moral basis of society. With these laws the communist government affected the Church property and deprived the Church of its main sources of income, paying attention neither to the legally acquired assets or the legal peculiarities of the Catholic Church as a religious, educational and charitable institution. The protests of the Catholic Church members about the unjust application of law were rejected by the communist government; it was said that the application of law, especially in the case of the land reform, represented one of the democratic bases of Yugoslavia, applied exclusively for the benefi t of the people. The efforts made by the communist regime to present attempts at protecting the property necessary for the livelihood of the clergy and church institutions as clear indicators of the lack of solidarity of the Catholic Church with the people and country impoverished by war did not meet the desired effect because a great part of Catholic believers across the country and in foreign countries unselfi shly assumed the burden for the material support of the Church. Their contributions enabled the stabilisation of material conditions during the 1960s