Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) considered the establishing of new communist Yugoslavia as the beginning of reconstruction, in terms of organisation and administration, particulary in the territory of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). More precisely, in April 1942, the Ustasha authorities in the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) established Croatian Orthodox Church (COC) (after they had banned the jurisdiction of SOC). However, even before the Second World War ended, on the third session of the Executive Board of State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH) on the 25th of August 1944, the communists have annuled such a decision. In addition, after establishing power over all Croatian territory in May 1945, the leadership of COC and the leading priests were sentenced to death. That marked the restoration of the unitary Serbian Orthodox church in whole Yugoslavian territory. Also, a Committee for the Religious Affaires was formed on the third session of the Executive Board of ZAVNOH, which indicated that communists will regulate relations with religious communities. The Committee itself is about to become the main mediator in dealing with open questions between communist authorities and religious communities. The first president of the Committee was Catholic priest Svetozar Ritig, and the members were Orthodox priest Ilija Ćuk and lawyer Ivan Tremski (on the 30th of October 1954, on the session of Executive Board of Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (CK SKJ), a decision was made stating that the Committee should consists only of laymen, and therefore priests cannot be its members).