The Slovenian Catholic Right in Relation to the Totalitarian and Authoritarian Movements in the Interwar Period: The Case of Slovenian Catholic Action
The Slovenian Catholic Right in Relation to the Totalitarian and Authoritarian Movements in the Interwar Period: The Case of Slovenian Catholic Action

Summary/Abstract: Like its counterparts in other European countries, the Roman Catholic Church in Slovenia has emerged somewhat unsuccessfully from its confrontations with secularization, modernization, social problems, and political and ideological antagonists. During the interwar period, the Catholic Right dominated the Slovenian part of the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A comparison between the discourses of Slovenian Catholic Action, which is a representative model of the Slovenian Catholic Right, and those of the authoritarian and totalitarian movements reveals common features. These commonalities include similar concepts of authority, discipline, and hierarchy. Both groups also pay special attention to youth, idealize the paternalistic family and an opposed liberalism, materialism, social democracy and communism. What is more, both the totalitarian movements and the Catholic Right claimed total control over every aspect of public and private life. There are, on the other hand, important distinctions between these two groups. Racial anti-Semitism, radical nationalism and militarization are significant features of (most) totalitarian movements, but not the Catholic Right.

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