Chaplain Ivan Kretič and a Children's Poem in Cerkno from 1937 are Threatening the Safety of the Italian State

Authors

  • Boris Mlakar Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino, Kongresni trg 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana

Keywords:

Fascism, Italianization, Slovene Littoral, clergy, confinement

Abstract

Based on archival documents, the most important being a preserved file in the fond of the Gorizia police office, the author, using the example of the parish priest Ivan Kretič in Cerkno, vividly presents a story illustrating the confrontations such as were typical in the 1930s between the Italian Fascist authorities and the Slovene clergy in the Primorska region. Kretič, by using the Slovene language and teaching his congregation national songs, which was seen by the Italian authorities as a deliberate attempt to hinder the Italianization of the region, elicited a strong reaction from the entire Fascist ruling and repressive apparatus from Cerkno to Gorizia. Kretič managed to avoid punishment only by a hair's breadth. Yet because he continued with such and similar activities after he was transferred to the parish of Kojsko, he was sentenced to two years of confinement in southern Italy in 1939.

Published

2000-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles

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