CRKVENA ŽUPNA ZAJEDNICA U RATOM ZAHVA]ENIM PODRUČJIMA I NJEZINA DRUŠTVENA ULOGA U INTEGRACIJSKIM PROCESIMA POVRATKA U HRVATSKOJ
THE CROATIAN PARISH COMMUNITY IN AREAS AFFECTED BY WAR AND ITS SOCIAL ROLE IN THE INTEGRATIONAL PROCESSES OF RETURN IN CROATIA

Summary/Abstract: In the war period the position of church parish communities in areas of Croatia affected by the war was very difficult. They were exiled from their towns and the countryside, their members ending up throughout Croatia and Europe. Furthermore, what contributed to the exile of parish communities was also the negative attitude of the Serbian Orthodox Church manifested in the Orthodox "spirituality of ossuaries". Church parish communities as social and caritative institutions in areas not affected by the war provided pastoral-spiritual and material assistance for the exiled parish communities. The latter fostered peacemaking, togetherness and solidarity in exile. In the process of return and re-building of the destroyed and devastated Croatian areas affected by war, the parish communities have "revived" church and social life which was close to extinction and, in addition, they have paved the way to encounter, tolerance, ecumenism, dialogue and pluralism. And finally, the restructuration and reemergence of pluralist parish communities contributes to the renewal of church life and at the same time to the development of a humanistic Croatian society on its way towards European and globalizational processes.

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