Josip Srebrnič

Who was Josip Srebrnič?

Josip Srebrnič, also spelled Srebrnić was a Slovene Roman Catholic prelate who spent most of his career in Croatia.

Born in a Slovene-speaking family in Solkan, Austria-Hungary, he was consecrated priest in 1906. In 1923, he became Bishop of Krk in Croatia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He served as bishop on the island of Krk for almost forty year, until 1961. During this long period, he publicly defended the freedom of the Roman Catholic Church against different authorities. He opposed the unificatory tendencies of the nationalist dictatorship of king Alexander I of Yugoslavia; in 1932, he published a booklet under the title "Freedom to the Church!", in which he denounced the educational and cultural policies of Alexander's royal dictatorship. Between 1941 and 1943, he voiced his opposition against the chauvinist anti-Croatian policies of the Italian Fascist occupation forces, and organized humanitarian help for the prisoners of the Italian Rab concentration camp, which was established on the territory under his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He continued to publicly defend personal and human rights of his flock during the Nazi German occupation regime. After 1945, he was critical of the anti-Catholic policies of the Yugoslav Communist regime.