The turn taken by our people’s history with the creation of the first Albanian state and the events after the First World War were at the centre of attention of the catholic Clergy. They have been always active to defend the rights of Albanians. The role of Monsignor Luigji Bumçi is known in the year 1919, which involved Pope and the Holy Seat to accept Albania in the Nations League. The urge of the ethnic conflicts and the massive move of Kosovars during the years 1925-1930 caused the main representatives of this Clergy unite with the national intelligence to defence the population rights. The Franciscan church started the diplomatic contacts unmasking the anti Albanian actions of the time. At the head of this intellectual movement was the famous poet and the patriot cleric Gjergj Fishta, whose activity gave impetus to the explosion of literature and art in reawakening of the national values and the obvious evidencing of stability and progress of the life in the country though the economic crises has invaded the globe.
In cooperation with the High Royal Port contributions were called to do away with unemployment and illiteracy. Prioritised were the social insurance and the development of education. Very soon there were 643 elementary schools and 18 middle and general and professional ones. A great role besides Fishta was played by education lovers Hil Mosi, Mirash Ivanaj, Aleksander Xhuvani and other young writers like Ernest Koliqi, Lsgush Poradeci, Migjeni, E’hem Haxhiademi, Kol Idromeno, Vangjush Mio, etc.
With its authority the Catholic clergy influenced obviously also in the creation of a new psychology for the murders for revenge. Tactically the priests changed the routine and the population was invited in various activities, activating not only the pilgrimage but also the cultural activities of educational interest. The programs aimed at the introduction of the new and making people aware (especially in the north) of a new mentality for life. The work was mainly concentrated in the remote areas. Besides the daily activity of parsons in the villages, the Franciscan centre in Shkodra published special editions against the harmful mentalities and practices of the past. From the Clergy the magazine “Pious work” circulated, and it was published under the care of the Franciscan Provincial and the printing-house “The Chaste Lady”. With mastery and art they gave arguments for the contradictions against these mentalities and practices of primitive origin, which carried barbarian elements very often and came against life and the Bible.
Though Fishta supported the publication of the summary of Kanun, making a scientific analysis with a positive sense, he advised people everywhere that they “understand correctly that there is no place for such practices and time has come to embrace the “western civilisation’. At the end of the preface to the Kanun edition he declared that he undertook to write those lines more for the respect and love he had for the late Father Shtjefen Gjeçovi.
The question of the Kanun in all the studies and references of that time was treated as a historical, culture question of the past. In all the cases the state administrators were criticised for not taking proper punishing measures …”according to the laws in force” for the kanun murders. With the same purpose, the artistic literature, created masterfully by these talented clerics, stigmatised incessantly the mentalities of the people of these areas and invited them to address to the reason, the work and the civilisation. The Novelette “The Blood” of Ernest Koliqi, in 1929 was read by more than 28 % of the young people, in the cities and in the villages. Even in the remote areas they spoke about its protagonist, causing at the same time repentance and revolt in the people reading it or listening to it. The story was in Shkodra city, where the main character, a young mountaineer, educated with the most precious qualities of character, graduated as a teacher in the western universities, with a total European outlook and education, engaged to a city girl, whom he loved more than his life, known and respected by all, but since six months abandoned and under an irresistible pressure (since the murder of his elder brother. He is obliged in the end, after many spiritual sufferings and sleepless nights, to apply the fierce law of the mountains and kill the enemy with his own hand, “to take the blood”…And he surrenders, by saying that the fault is not his in this murder, but it is the fault of the society, the law, and the authorities, which could stop it, if they would apply the state rule.
The printing house “Chaste Lady” during 1939, because of the public demand, published the Pious Work, No 39, entitled THE MURDER, some times. In the preface of these editions one can observe the argument that murder in the Balkans was inculcated during the ottoman invasion and was constantly fed by the sultans of that time.
In the offices of the foreign diplomats, referring to an Albanologist scholar, it was reported that before the Balkans war, in the cemetery of the village PULT, 60 % of the dead were from blood feud. Whereas, after this war and the creation of the Albanian state, especially after the systemization of the Zog administration, the murdered people figures for blood feud started to decrease, going towards elimination. Unfortunately, there were cases when in unrest moments, foreign intelligence services delivered gratis weapons to the mountaineers “to help them” in “blood taking”. Therefore the clergy rose with great concern and draw the attention for these disloyalties. The “Pious Work”, No 39, said: “…continuing with canon provisions shows that there is still in our people a lust microbe which shows that murder is not totally hatred, or it does not know the strong reasons for which the murder, is not only against the Gospel, but also against the reason of national unity…” and “…since our mountains have also men of culture, we have thought that speeches made in the churches are not sufficient, but we must do our utmost through the press to convince the children and the adult that …the fifth commandment does not allow to kill the oneself or the other by private authority…to wish the death or some misfortune to oneself or the other, to conjure or curse, …,as the dictation, grudge, grief, greed, etc, are against this commandment…” To clarify correctly what the Fifth Commandment included, the magazine explained “The theory on murder”, which was divided in 5 main points: 1. Suicide; 2. Murder; 3. Duel; 4. Fight: 5. Wishing bad; 6. Curse; 7. Grudge; 8. Grief; 9. Greed. With understandable and concise expressions for each case is treated the attitude and the reasons why these acts are punished, together with the vices accompanying them. It is interesting because the suicide id considered as graver and more punishable act. In an illustration around this attitude, it was said that sometime in France, the body of the man who committed suicide was dragged through the city streets and the law accepted the trial on his body. This was considered just because as we make honours to the good man after death, the bad man should be covered by shame. The king, A.Zogu, acting wisely, invited continuously in his audiences the representatives of the catholic clergy, the intellectual elite, and the tribes’ chiefs from the north whom he stimulated for the work they did, mowing thus the fruits of keeping the situation under control. Evidencing and divulgating the positive traditions for the respect of rules in the community caused that the law be seen as an obligatory norm for everyone and every violation of it be considered as an opposition to society and this tradition. By the end of the years ’30-ies data were given, which showed that, the number of murders in the Albanian territory was inconsiderable. |
