ABSTRACT: The paper examines all aspects of the life and activities of the Banja Luka Diocese during the three-decade administration of Bishop Alfred Pichler, a bishop in many ways unique in the Yugoslav context. In Serbian historiography and the wider public, Bishop Pichler is known for his Christmas letter from 1963, in which he asked for forgiveness from his “Orthodox brothers” for crimes in the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945), but so far there has been no attempt to shed more comprehensive light on his personality and the life of the Diocese he governed. To this end, new sources and literature have been used that provide a more complete insight into the bishop’s views, the church life of Roman Catholics, ecumenical activity, the attitude of the Communist Party and state bodies towards the Roman Catholic Church, and interfaith and interethnic relations in the area of Bosnian Krajina in the last three decades of the Yugoslav state.

KEYWORDS: Banja Luka Diocese, Banja Luka, Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Alfred Pichler, Christmas letter, ecumenism, League of Communists of Yugoslavia, cleronationalism, interfaith and interethnic relations. 

SUMMARY: Bishop Alfred Pichler of Banja Luka (1959–1989) was a rather atypical bishop within the Roman Catholic Church in Yugoslavia. An Austrian by origin, born and raised in Bosnian Krajina among the Serbian population, during his priestly and episcopal service he showed openness and even affection for the Serbian people and Orthodoxy. During World War II, he personally advocated for the Serbs against the Germans and the Ustashas, in which, according to certain testimonies, he endangered his own safety and even his own life. He is credited with saving dozens and perhaps several hundred Serbs from persecution, imprisonment and certain death. After the war, he was the only Roman Catholic bishop in the country who publicly asked forgiveness from the Serbs for the crimes committed by Roman Catholics during World War II. Such an attitude was in line with the general ecumenical orientation shown by Bishop Pichler, especially after the Second Vatican Council. He maintained very close ties with the Orthodox bishop of Banja Luka. Because of all this, he was not accepted by Croats at home and abroad. Within the Diocese, Pichler worked on the renewal and expansion of the church organization and in the missionary field. The Communist Party and the State Security Service noted the situation in the Diocese and viewed with suspicion its increasingly `offensive appearance`, the activities of `extreme circles` and the increasingly present `cleronationalism`, especially since the death of the President of Yugoslavia in 1980. Some Roman Catholic priests were persecuted and imprisoned. Until the end of his life, even after the outbreak of war in Croatia in 1991, Bishop Pichler advocated for a common state and Yugoslavism, with which he identified. While the Roman Catholic Church honors many of its members who saved Jews during the war, the personality and work of Alfred Pichler, as well as his high moral awareness during and after World War II, are the subject of criticism and marginalization in that church. The reason for this is the fact that Bishop Pichler's views and actions do not fit into the contemporary Croatian national narrative, which dominates within the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In recent decades, the Banja Luka Diocese has emphasized the personality and work of Blessed Ivan Merz, an intellectual and layman who was active in the 1920s. His cult was officially established by Pope John Paul II in Banja Luka in 2003, and two years later, the Catholic School Center `Blessed Ivan Merz` in the same city began operating.