FRYMA SHQIPTARE E KISHËS KATOLIKE DHE KUVENDI I ARBNIT
The Albanian Spirit Of The Catholic Church And The Assembly Of Arbni

Summary/Abstract: In the Albanian lands, writes K. Biçoku, the Catholic Church has exercised its influence on the believers in defavourable conditions. Continually it has been considered as adversary by the central powers, both in the time of the theocratic empires, Byzantine and Slav, and of the Ottoman Empire. The Albanian Catholic clergymen, points out, J. Biçoku, have worked with devotion to give an Albanian spirit, inspiration to the principal religious rites, consequently even to the Catholic Church itself. The first step was made at the time of Scanderbeg by his close collaborator, the archbishop of Durrës, Pal Engjëlli. In a circular letter addressed to his subordinates on November 8, 1462 he requested that, when the Albanian parents couldn’t baptize in church their children, this ceremony they could make themselves, speaking in the Albanian language the phrase “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. The publication in Latin and Albanian of the acts of the Assembly of Arbni with the approval, expenditures and under the care of the leading institutions of Vatican and pope Clement XI, points out the author, institutionalized the albaniazation of the Catholic Church and the publication of the books in the Albanian language. For the first time the acts of the Assembly of Arbni were published in 1706 for the 150 priests who worked in the Albanian lands. This testifies, according to the author, to the fact that the process of albaniazation of the Catholic Church was irresistible. The Assembly of Arbni, - arrives at the conclusion K. Biçoku, - had a long-term and direct influence on the writing of the Albanian language by the Catholic community and the Albanians of the other faiths, for the spread of the writing in the Albanian language. That’s why it had a very great importance for all the Albanian nation.

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