SUMMARY.

This article provides a summary of the social activities of the Catholic Church in the Ljubljana Diocese from the late 18th century to the beginning of World War II. The Church's activities were influenced by economic development, political changes, workers' movements, Papal encyclicals, and the development of orders and congregations. The social activity in the diocese can be divided into two parts: the period of Josephinism from the late 18th to mid-19th century, and the independent initiative of the Church from the mid-19th century to the beginning of World War II. During the Josephinism period, the Church was responsible for social care, including caring for the poor, orphans, and foundlings. In the second part, the Church's social activity was marked by the arrival of monastic orders and congregations, particularly female orders, who played a significant role in charitable institutions. The Church also addressed the social question in Austria through circulars and charity endeavors, and later formed a social movement influenced by the Rerum novarum Papal encyclical. Cooperativism and the organization of the working class were key aspects of the Catholic social movement in Slovenia. However, friction arose between the SLS party and the JSZ, the central expert organization for the Catholic working class, in the 1920s. The dispute deepened in the 1930s, leading to the founding of a parallel workers' head office. [Extracted from the article]