ABSTRACT
The de-privatization of religions in Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia started during the crisis of Yugoslav communism in the 1980s. The Bosnian Catholic Church officially entered the public scene, issuing documents that addressed the place of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Yugoslav federation, in 1990. The situation with the Croatian Catholic Church was quite different, despite the fact that both Croatia and Slovenia were predominantly Catholic societies. The Bosnian church hierarchy continuously emphasized the notion of Bosnia as a sovereign political entity. The Slovenian Catholic Church, which was the first religious institution to enter the public realm in former Yugoslavia, was also the first to be marginalized in public life. The privatization of religion in Western Europe happened in response to religious wars and rejection of the powerful church institutions in many societies. The levels of public influence of the Bosnian, Croatian, and Slovenian Churches related to their specific contexts.
