8,921
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→WWII and Post-WWII Era
*1937 [[w:Pope Pius XI|Pope Pius XI]] issued the encyclical ''[[w:Divini Redemptoris|Divini Redemptoris]]'', condemning Communism and the Soviet regime; the [[Church of Serbia|Serbian Orthodox Church]] led by Patr. [[Varnava (Rosic) of Serbia]] and Bp. [[Nikolai Velimirovic]] fiercely resisted the attempt by the government of Yugoslavian Prime Minister [[w:Milan Stojadinović|Milan Stojadinović]] to implement a [[w:Concordat|Concordat]] with the [[w:Holy See|Vatican]], which would have virtually established the [[Roman Catholic Church]] in Yugoslavia and granted it privileges denied to the Orthodox Church, resulting in the proposal never being ratified.<ref group="note">This treaty would have given enormous priviledges to the Roman Catholic Church which was actually a minority church in Yugoslavia (according to the 1931 census 48.7% of population were Orthodox, while 38% were Roman Catholic). The Serbs felt this to be an attack on the Orthodox Church, and the Church together with virtually all the Serbian people mounted unprecedented resistance to the proposed agreement. In the midst of the crisis Patriarch [[Varnava (Rosic) of Serbia|Varnava (Rosic)]] died. His health had suffered under the strain of the controversy, and it was even rumored that he had been poisoned. The concordat was passed by the parliament on the very day the patriarch died, and was immediately followed by the excommunication of those Serbian deputies who voted in favor of it. There was also a demonstration organized by the Church and headed by bishops and clergy that set out from the cathedral in Belgrade and was violently broken up by the police. The prime minister had a serious crisis on his hands and withdrew the proposal.</ref>
===WWII and Post-WWII Era===
*1941-45 Croatian [[w:Ustaše|Ustasa]]<ref group="note">A Croatian fascist, anti-Yugoslav separatist movement, whose ideological movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, Croatian ultranationalism, and Roman Catholic [[w:Clerical fascism|Clericalist]] [[w:Fundamentalist Christianity|Fundamentalism]]. (Palmer Domenico, Roy. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Z8ZixRcQfV8C&dq=inauthor:%22Roy+P.+Domenico%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Politics]''. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2006. ISBN 0313323623).</ref> terrorists, part of whose ideology included Roman Catholic [[w:Clerical fascism|Clericalist Fundamentalism]], kill 500,000 Orthodox Serbs, expel 250,000 and force 250,000 to convert to [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]].<ref group="note">According to the [[w:Simon Wiesenthal Center|Simon Wiesenthal Center]] (citing the ''[[w:Encyclopedia of the Holocaust|Encyclopedia of the Holocaust]]''). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states that "Ustaša units, often encouraged by Catholic clergy, carried out a program of compulsory conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism; resistance often resulted in murder. Some Serbs, particularly members of the elite, were not even offered the option of conversion to avoid being killed." (''[http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/jasenovac/frameset.html Holocaust Era in Croatia 1941-1945 JASENOVAC: History: II Targeted Populations].'' [http://www.ushmm.org/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]).The late Bishop [[Nikolai Velimirovic|Nikolai (Velimirovich)]] inscribed into the Church calendar by his own hand the following notation for the date August 31 (O.S.): ''"The 700,000 who suffered for the Orthodox faith at the hands of the Roman crusaders and Ustasi during the time of the Second World War. These are the New Serbian Martyrs."''</ref>
*1943-44 Hundreds of Orthodox priests of the [[Church of Ukraine|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]] eliminated, tortured and drowned by Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - [[w:Ukrainian Insurgent Army|Ukrainian Rebel Army]], aided by [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate]] Metr. Josyf Slipyj who was a spiritual leader of Nazi military units<ref group="note">[[w:14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian)|SS-Galicia division]] (Galizien/Galichina) and the Wehrmacht [[w:Nachtigall Battalion|Nachtigall battalion]].</ref> that were later condemned by the Nuremberg tribunal, and who was imprisoned by Soviet authorities for aiding the UPA; zenith of the [[w:Papist|Papist]]<ref group="note">'''Papist''' is a term, usually regarded as a disparaging or an anti-Catholic slur, referring to the Roman Catholic Church, its teaching, practices or adherents. It was coined during the English Reformation to denote a Christian whose loyalties were to the Pope, rather than to the Church of England. Over time, however, it came to mean one who supported [[w:Papal supremacy|Papal authority over all Christians]]. A similar term, "papalism", is sometimes used.</ref> persecution in Poland against Orthodox faithful in the region of Helm and Podlaskia - [http://www.impantokratoros.gr/F110A235.en.aspx Holy Poles martyred by the Papists].
*1946 State-sponsored synod held Ukraine dissolves the Union of Brest-Litovsk and integrates the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church into the Russian Orthodox Church, with Soviet authorities arresting resisters or deporting them to Siberia.
