A Croatian Orthodox Church?

From Again and Again

The Serbian paper Politika had an article yesterday about a group of Croatian citizens who are in the process of organizing a Croatian Orthodox community since it was recently discovered that there are some Croatians who are of the Orthodox faith. The last time something similar was attempted was during WWII when the so-called Croatian Orthodox Church was formed, essentially a political tool of the Ustasha used to destroy the Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox wishing to form this new religious community didn’t reveal their identity as they explain in a statement in one of the Croatian papers: “There is a large number of Orthodox who do not wish to identify themselves as Serbs. They declare themselves as Croats, but there are also other nationalities, and they ask that something be done so that they might be differentiated from Orthodox Serbs. Their children do not attend the Orthodox religious education classes offered in the schools since they would then be automatically considered as Serbs.”

Coincidentally, the Croatian Orthodox Church was never recognized. And as this new attempt looks to the example of the Macedonian and Montenegrin so-called Orthodox churches — both of which are non-canonical — I doubt this venture will go anywhere either, as least canonically speaking. After all, if these Croatians really do want to attend Orthodox churches they can always attend the ones that already exist in Croatia. I’m sure they know where they can find them. If not, they’ll be sure to recognize them by the swastikas and Ustasha “U”s spray-painted on their walls and doors here.