»Stenjevec Case« and Šaptinovci – Examples of Conversion to the Old Catholic Church of Croatia

Starokatoličke župe u Stenjevcu (Zagreb) i Šaptinovcima, mjestu u općini Đurđenovac, jedine su značajnije starokatoličke župe u Republici Hrvatskoj. Nastale su 20-ih godina 20. stoljeća. Njihov nastanak je primjer u kojem se isprepliću mnogi čimbenici koji su u međuratnom razdoblju dovodili do napuštanja Katoličke crkve i prelaska u Hrvatsku starokatoličku crkvu. »Stenjevečki slučaj«, kako ga je nazivao ondašnji tisak, izazvao je veliku pozornost medija, djelovanje političkih stranaka i reakciju vrha Crkve u Hrvata, dok o Šaptinovcima postoje brojni izvori u Nadbiskupijskom arhivu u Zagrebu i tadašnjem katoličkom tisku. Brojni tekstovi u tisku i velik broj dopisa upućenih Nadbiskupskome duhovnom stolu omogućuju rekonstrukciju događaja u vrijeme kada je dio župljana napustio rimokatoličku vjeru i pristupio starokatolicizmu. Na temelju tih izvora u radu će biti prikazani svi rečeni događaji s naglaskom na važnim čimbenicima koji su pridonijeli pojavi starokatolicizma u Stenjevcu i Šaptinovcima, ukazujući na razloge širenja starokatolicizma.The reform movement of a part of the Catholic lower clergy was an unsuccessful attempt at democratization and reform of the Catholic Church in Croatia. After numerous crises and the diminishing of this movement, the remaining small number of members formed the Old Catholic Church of Croatia (OCCC). The new religious community, recognized by the state authorities, mostly was concentrated within urban communities. Attempts of the reformists, especially in Koprivnica in 1920 and 1921, to expand their activities to village communities were unsuccessful. However, with the establishment of the OCCC in the second half of the 20s conversions to the Old-Catholicism became more numerous in the village communities. Examples of Stenjevec and Šaptinovci, two distant villages in the Zagreb Diocese, reveal reasons and motives for conversion. Namely, the extent archival sources allow historiographical analysis that reveals many similarities and linkages among the people who converted from the Roman-Catholicism to the Old-Catholicism. One of the reasons for these conversions was long-lasting disagreements with the ecclesiastical authorities, behind which were political differences. This situation was used by Old-Catholic agitators, backed by certain political circles. Acting in this manner the OCCC had some success among villagers but the Church became dependent on the political interests of the government in Belgrade, and consequently, the OCCC became a tool for weakening the authority of the Catholic Church in the realm of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia)