Location

• Split Ulica Zrinsko Frankopanska 14, Croatia 21000
  Show on map

Languages

• Croatian
• French
• German
• Italian

Name of collection

• Archbishop Frane Franić Collection

Provenance and cultural activities

• The Archbishop Frane Franić Collection covers almost the entire period of his life, from his university days in the 1930s to almost his death. Its importance is that through the work of this archbishop of Split, relations between the Church and state during the Yugoslav communist dictatorship are revealed. Furthermore, Franic's participation in the Second Vatican Council as a bishop from Eastern Europe, which came to power under Communist rule in 1945, also provides insight into the views and debates inside the Catholic Church in general when its relations with the socialist regimes were in question.

  He delivered the first part of the collection, dealing with his work in the Second Vatican Council, as  Rev. Slavko Kovačić stated, in the early 1980s. The largest part of the collection came to the Archdiocesan Archives of the Split-Makarska Archdiocese in Split immediately after Franic's death in 2007. Officially, it was received by the same director, Kovačić, who later handed over the entire contents of this personal collection. The collection was not gathered for some specific purpose, rather it was the fruit of Franic's public and intellectual work as an archbishop and professor of theology and philosophy. Franić was its original creator and collector. As the collection existed during the course of socialist Croatia and Yugoslavia, Franić had to keep some of it secret from the police and the repressive apparatus. The Frane Franić Collection is available to researchers in accordance with ecclesiastical and state regulations, with the previous permission of the local ordinary.

  Archbishop Franić also played a particularly significant role in the 1950s in the conflict with the regime over the establishment of clerical associations under state surveillance. He then spearheaded the resistance of the episcopate in Croatia and throughout Yugoslavia against such attempts, arguing that it contradicted the canonical right of the Catholic Church (Akmadža 2013: 211-213). Because of Franić's leadership in this struggle, the regime banned the work of the seminary and theology faculty in his Archdiocese, and evicted him from his bishop's palace, which was a precedent in Yugoslavia. In 1977, when priests and theologians from Zagreb founded the Kršćanska sadašnjost (Christian Modernity) Theological Association in Zagreb, Franić condemned this as a new attempt to create clerical associations, so he prohibited his clergy from the Split-Makarska Archdiocese to become members, because it was not created by the official hierarchy of Church, but rather in compliance with the socialist legislation of the enemy communist state (Franić 1986: 100).

Description of content

• The personal collection of Archbishop Franić contains 4.5 metric metres of material. Since it is a personal collection, it preserves all of the materials gathered by Archbishop Franić. Basically it consists of documents, correspondence and photographs. Most of the materials are documents, notes and other collected materials from sessions of the Second Vatican Council. It has more than 220 archival boxes.

  The entire material is divided into six large sections. The first part of the collection pertains to the personal documentation of the archbishop of Split, in which there are three subdivisions of the materials: the first  contains his diplomas, the second his decrees, scriptures and letters, and the third consists of spiritual diaries. The second part of collection consists of the materials which Franić gathered during his work and participation in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In the third part of collection, there are records from various episcopal synods in Rome at which he participated as the head of the metropolitan church in Split. The fourth unit is made up of the Holy See's weekly documents and the list of episcopal conferences of Croatia and Yugoslavia. In the fifth part of the series, there are works by various theological writers about the recent reconstruction, which was a particular focus of the archbishop's work after the end of the Second Vatican Council. And finally, in the sixth unit of collection, there is a variety of other things.

  According to Kovačić's remarks, one of the most interesting parts of the materials which should be mentioned is in the second part of the first series of documents of his personal papers. This is the written correspondence between Archbishop Franić and a priest in his diocese, Rev. Herkul Luger, and Croatian sculptor and political émigré Ivan Meštrović, as well as Meštrović's letters referring to Vladimir Bakarić, the undisputed communist leader of socialist Croatia.

  Box number 240 contains materials under the title “Msgr. Frane Franić i dijalog s komunistima u Titovoj Jugoslaviji” (Msgr. Frane Franić and dialogue with the communists in Tito's Yugoslavia), in which Franić attempted to establish dialogue with the communist authorities and intellectuals in the spirit of the post-council reforms. His efforts in this direction were written in a book entitled Put dijaloga (The Way of Dialogue) from 1973. There are also important documents that illuminate the period of changes in relations between the Church and the communist authorities, which would begin with the re-establishment of the relations between the Holy See and Yugoslavia in 1966; the culmination of these efforts was Tito’s official visit to the Vatican and his meeting with Pope Paul VI in 1971. As an archbishop of the second largest archdiocese in Croatia and Yugoslavia, Franić played a significant role in the restoration of Church-state relations. In addition,  box number 242 contains press clippings which he preserved which deal with the various relations between the Church and the political authorities during that same socialist period.

  When considering his work on the Second Vatican Council II, which is in fact the second major part of his legacy, his intervention concerning the status and position of Eastern churches under communist rule in the council synods is particularly important under the title Scheme decreta De Ecclesiis orientalibus catolicis from 1964. In the work of these synods, Franić actively participated as a bishop in a country under a communist dictatorship to formulate new paths for relations between the Church and communist regimes which followed after the end of the Second Vatican Council. Franić moreover gathered an entire collection of different theological brochures and articles, among them two discussions on the status of churches in Lithuania and Armenia under communist dictatorships: V. Mincevicius, La Chiesa in Litvania (The Church in Lithuania) and Pierrea XVI Bataniana, Un page de la tragedie armeniene: cinquante ans apres le hecatombes 1915-1965. Appel a la coscience internationale (A page of the Armenian tragedy: 50 years under hecatombs 1915-1965. An appeal to international conscience). A particular source for the study of the relationship between the authorities and ecclesiastical structures are certainly Franić's records as the archbishop of Split-Makarska Archdiocese, which provide information on his pastoral work and the general status of the Catholic community throughout his Archdiocese.

Content

• manuscripts (ego-documents, diaries, notes, letters, drafts, etc.): 1000-
• publications (books, newspapers, articles, press clippings): 1000-

Operator(s)

• Archdiocese Archive in Split

Owner(s)

• Archdiocese Archive in Split

Stakeholder(s) of the collection

• Kovačić, Slavko

Geographical scope of recent operation

• international

Topics

• religious activism

Founder(s)

• Franić, Frane

Date of founding

• 1930

Place of founding

• Roma, Rome, Italy
  Show on map
• Split, Croatia
  Show on map

Creator(s) of content

• Franić, Frane

Collector(s)

• Franić, Frane

Supporters

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Split-Makarska

Important events in the history of the collection

• Donation of the Archbishop Frane Franić Collection to the Archdiocesan Archives in Split, 2007

Featured items

• Pope John Paul II. Letter on the 50th anniversary of Franić's priesthood, 1986. Manuscript of letter.
• Report from the Chronicle of the Parish of Staševica, 1956. Manuscript

Access type

• completely open to the public

Publications

• Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1945.-1952.) [Church and State. Correspondence and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1945-1952)], vol. I., Zagreb: 2008.

  Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1953.-1960.) [Church and State. Summons and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1953-1960)], vol. II. Zagreb: Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije „Tkalčić“; Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2010.
  
  Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1961.-1964) [Church and State. Summons and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1961-1964)], vol. III. Zagreb: Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije "Tkalčić"; Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2012.

  Akmadža, Miroslav. Katolička crkva u komunističkoj Hrvatskoj (1945.-1980.) [The Catholic Church in Communist Croatia (1945-1980)], Zagreb: Despot Infinitus, 2013.

  Franić, Frane. Crkva, stup istine: uspomene na moje doktrinalne djelatnosti u II. vatikanskom saboru [The Church, Pillar of Truth: Memories of My Doctrinal Activities at the Second Vatican Council], Split: Književni krug, 1998.

  Franić, Frane. Dvadeset godina nakon koncila [Twenty years after Vatican II], Crkva u svijetu 21 (1986), no. 2., 97-100.

  Franić, Frane. Putovi dijaloga [The Ways of Dialogue], Split: Crkva u svijetu, 1973.

  Moro, Dušan, Prinos mons. “Franića u pripremi dogmatskih konstitucija Drugog vatikanskoga sabora Lumen Gentium i Dei Verbum” [The Contribution of Msgr. Franić in preparation for the dogmatic constitutions of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum], Crkva u svijetu 44 (2007), no. 2., pp. 146.-166.

Author(s) of this page

• Kljaić, Stipe

References

Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1945.-1952.) [Church and State. Correspondence and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1945-1952)], vol. I., Zagreb: 2008.

Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1953.-1960.) [Church and State. Summons and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1953-1960)], vol. II. Zagreb: Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije „Tkalčić“; Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2010.

Akmadža, Miroslav. Crkva i država. Dopisivanje i razgovori između predstavnika Katoličke crkve i komunističke državne vlasti u Jugoslaviji (1961.-1964) [Church and State. Summons and conversations between representatives of the Catholic Church and the communist government in Yugoslavia (1961-1964)], vol. III. Zagreb: Društvo za povjesnicu Zagrebačke nadbiskupije "Tkalčić"; Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2012.

Akmadža, Miroslav. Katolička crkva u komunističkoj Hrvatskoj (1945.-1980.) [The Catholic Church in Communist Croatia (1945-1980)], Zagreb: Despot Infinitus, 2013.

Franić, Frane. Crkva, stup istine: uspomene na moje doktrinalne djelatnosti u II. vatikanskom saboru [The Church, Pillar of Truth: Memories of My Doctrinal Activities at the Second Vatican Council], Split: Književni krug, 1998.

Franić, Frane. Dvadeset godina nakon koncila [Twenty years after Vatican II], Crkva u svijetu 21 (1986), no. 2., 97-100.

Franić, Frane. Putovi dijaloga [The Ways of Dialogue], Split: Crkva u svijetu, 1973.

Moro, Dušan, Prinos mons. “Franića u pripremi dogmatskih konstitucija Drugog vatikanskoga sabora Lumen Gentium i Dei Verbum” [The Contribution of Msgr. Franić in preparation for the dogmatic constitutions of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium and Dei Verbum], Crkva u svijetu 44 (2007), no. 2., pp. 146.-166.

Kovačić, Slavko, interview by Kljaić, Stipe , July 27, 2018. COURAGE Registry Oral History Collection