Franciscan Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary


Franciscan Province of Herzegovina of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a province of the Catholic religious order of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as Franciscans. It was established in 1843 when it seceded from the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena. Its headquarters are in Mostar.
The Franciscans were present at the territory of Herzegovina since the 13th century. During the Ottoman rule, they established their exclusive care of the Catholics under the Ottoman held-territories, thus gaining a number of privileges, acting as a de facto an Ottoman institution. With the restoration of the Church hierarchy after the Austrian-Hungarian occupation in 1881, the Franciscans fiercely opposed the restoration, trying to preserve their privileges and control over the Herzegovinian parishes, a conflict which is not resolved till the present-day, known as the Herzegovina Affair.

Location

The Province includes monasteries in:
and priests of the province serve at 33 churches in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The province also conducts ministry for Croatian parishes and missions in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada, and conducts a mission in Democratic Republic of the Congo.

History

Franciscan friars came to the region of Bosnia in 1291 to help oppose the dualistic Bogomil sect, also called Patarenes, and the non-Catholic "Bosnian Christians". The first Franciscan vicariate in Bosnia was founded in 1339/40. In the 14th century, when the bishop of Bosnia was forced to move to Djakovo, and the bishop of Trebinje moved to Dubrovnik, Franciscans took over a leadership role in the church in the region.

Under the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire gained control of Bosnia in 1463 and Herzegovina in 1482. The Franciscan order was promised toleration by Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror in 1463. Friar Anđeo Zvizdović of the Monastery in Fojnica received the oath on 28 May 1463 at the camp of Milodraž.
The Ahdname of Milodraž stated:
This ferman is one of the oldest documents on religious freedom, providing independence and tolerance to people of a differing religion, belief, and race. It was republished by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey for the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Ottoman State. The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan Catholic Monastery in Fojnica. In 1971, the United Nations published a translation of the document in all the official U.N. languages.

Founding of the province

Without a regular hierarchy of bishops in place, the diocesan clergy fell into decline and disappeared by the mid-19th century. To support the local church which was functioning without resident bishops, the Holy See founded an Apostolic Vicariate for Bosnia in 1735, and assigned Franciscans as apostolic vicars to direct it. The Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena was restructured to correspond to the borders of Ottoman rule in 1757; it split in 1846, when friars from the Kresevo monastery broke off to found the monastery at Siroki Brijeg. A separate Franciscan jurisdiction was established for Herzegovina in 1852. Pope Leo XIII raised it to the status of a province in 1892.

Restoration of the hierarchy and conflict with the dioceses

The attempts of the Roman Curia to establish the regular church hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina existed since the 13th century. However, due to political reasons, as well as because of the opposition from the Franciscans, these attempts failed.
The Franciscans opposed the efforts of local bishops to implement secular clergy in Bosnian-Herzegovinian parishes, and even sought help from the Ottomans to push them out of the country.
In 1612 and again in 1618, Rome sent Bartol Kašić, a Jesuit from Dubrovnik to report the situation in the lands under the Ottoman rule in Southeast Europe. Kašić wrote the Pope back in 1613, stating that "if your Holiness does not take some effective means so that the Bosnian Friars do not prevent the persons sent by your Holiness, no one will be able to make sure that they do will not hand them over to the Turks with the usual and unusual slanders. They know how much they can do in the hearts of the Turks, to exploit the money from poor priests."
Head of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Urbanus Cerri, wrote to Pope Innocent XI in 1676, that the Franciscans in Bosnia and Herzegovina are "the richest in the whole Order, but also the most licentious, and that they are opposed to the secular clergy in fear for the payment for the maintenance of priests from the parishes with which they maintain their monasteries, and that notwithstanding all the orders from Rome, it would not be possible to implement the secular clergy in Bosnia because Franciscans would cause the opposition from the Turks against the secular clergy".
In the 19th century, the Franciscans opposed the efforts of local bishops, Rafael Barišić and Marijan Šunjić, both of whom were Franciscans, to open a seminary for the education of the secular clergy. The so-called Barišić affair lasted for 14 years, between 1832 and 1846, and gained attention in Rome, Istanbul and Vienna.
After the retreat of Ottoman rule in 1878, when Herzegovina became part of the empire of Austria-Hungary, Pope Leo XIII took steps to establish dioceses and appoint local bishops.
As part of re-establishing normal church structures, the bishops worked to transfer parishes from the Franciscans to the diocesan clergy, but friars resisted, and in the 1940s, the two Franciscan provinces still held 63 of 79 parishes in the dioceses of Vrhbosna and Mostar. Resistance to diocesan clergy continued through the following decades, despite papal support for the diocesan bishops. In the 1970s, friars in Herzegovina formed the "Mir i Dobro" association of priests, which encouraged popular support for local autonomy and opposition to diocesan parish takeovers.
A 1975 decree by Pope Paul VI, Romanis Pontificibus, ordered that Franciscans withdraw from a majority of the parishes in the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, retaining 30 and leaving 52 to the diocesan clergy. Resistance continued, and in the 1980s the Franciscan Province held 40 parishes under the direction of 80 friars. The Holy See imposed restrictions on the Province, imposing a superior instead of allowing normal elections, and forbidding the admission of new candidates.
In the 1990s, the cases of seven parishes remained unresolved, and the Holy See brought the leadership of the worldwide Franciscan Order into the process to see that Romanis Pontificibus would be implemented. When visited by Franciscan superiors from Rome, most friars expressed their willingness to comply, and transfers of clergy were decreed in order to carry out the plan, but the newly appointed diocesan clergy were met with the physical occupation of churches, threats, and even some violence by occupiers. Several recalcitrant friars were expelled from the Order for disobedience but continued to engage in forbidden ministry.
In spite of these limitations, the Franciscan Minister General declared in 1999 that he had implemented the decree, and in 2001 the province conducted its first Provincial Chapter and elections in decades. In contrast, Bishop Ratko Perić of Mostar-Duvno responded in 2002 that the decree had not yet been implemented.