During the Second World War the Serbian Orthodox Church suffered severely from persecutions by the occupying powers and the rabidly anti-Serbian Ustaše regime of Independent State of Croatia , which sought to create a " Croatian Orthodox Church " which Orthodox Serbs were forced to join . Many Serbs were killed , expelled or forced to convert to Catholicism during the Serbian Genocide ; bishops and priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church were singled out for persecution , and many Orthodox churches were damaged or destroyed
Serbian Genocide
Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia
Serbian Orthodox Church