Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: Cardinal Stepinac Arcticle 1
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: May, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Vatican/vs001a.htm
A Series of Articles on Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac of the Catholic Church
See also Articles 2 and 3
[contributor's comments in brackets]
07:40 AM ET 05/08/98
Pope to visit Croatia and beatify WW2 cardinal
ZAGREB, May 8 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul II will visit Croatia in October and beatify a World War Two Roman Catholic cardinal who was imprisoned by Yugoslav communist authorities, Croatian Archbishop Josip Bozanic said on Friday.
Addressing a congregation in Krasic, the birthplace of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, Bozanic said the Pope would visit Croatia from October 2-4, the Hina state news agency reported.
The Pope is expected to beatify Stepinac in a religious service at the site of a pilgrimage shrine in Marija Bistrica on October 3, Hina said.
The 77-year-old pontiff paid his first visit to Croatia in 1994, three years after the country gained independence from federal Yugoslavia.
Stepinac was arrested and tried by Yugoslav authorities for allegedly supporting the Nazi-backed Ustasha fascists, who killed thousands of Jews Serbs and Gypsies in Croatia. He died under house arrest in 1960.
Members of Croatia's Jewish community said recently Stepinac had done a lot to avert the persecution of Jews.
The decree of beatification declares him to be among the citizens of heaven, and accords him the title of Blessed. Canonization awards the full title of Saint. (Universal Standard Encyclopedia).
[The person needs to be beatified before he can be canonized.]
Archbishop Stepinac: "God, who directs the destiny of nations and controls the hearts of Kings, has given us Ante Pavelic [head of a Nazi puppet regime in Yugoslavia] and moved the leader of a friendly and allied people, Adolf Hitler, to use his victorious troops to disperse our oppressors... Glory be to God, our gratitude to Adolf Hitler and loyalty to our Poglavnik [fuhrer], Ante Pavelic."
At the end of WWI, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were declared independent states. The Catholic Croats were now a minority in Yugoslavia. The Vatican decided to change this and got themselves involved with former Russians who had "fled the Boshevik takeover and were determined to return to defeat 'the Reds.'" Ante Pavelic was "among its most vicious and sadistic leaders" and was "destined to be of great service both to Hitler and the Vatican as the head of a Nazi puppet regime in Yugoslavia known as the Ustasha."
Even though the lawful leadership of Croatia at this time was Catholic, even they were suspicious of the Vatican. The Vatican got around this by promoting their man Ante Pavelic who formed "an illegal army of pro-Vatican terrorists" in partnership with Croatian Archbishop Stepinac. "These two arch-criminals were responsible for numerous assassinations, including Yugoslavian King Alexander and French Foreign Minister Barthou (1934), as well as Croat Peasant Party leader Radich (128). (The latter had warned against and opposed the machinations of the Vatican and thus had to be removed.)"
Because of these deaths, Pavelic is sentenced to death by both France and Yugoslavia but Mussolini, "out of loyalty to the Vatican," gave Pavelic asylum in Italy and refused to extradict him.
The Ustashi's main goal is to form a Catholic Croatian state in Yugoslavia and when Hitler moves in, Pavelic is tapped to head the puppet regime there.
Pavelic's solution to the problem of non-Catholics was either deportation or liquidation and the tactics he used even sickened the Nazis. "Pavelic reprimanded Hitler for being too lenient in his treatment of the Jews and boasted that in Croatia he had completely solved the 'Jewish problem.'" Approximately 50,000 Jews were either liquidated or shipped to Nazi death camps.
"Most of Croatia's Catholic clergy were fanatically behind Pavelic and his unbelievably evil regime. Medals were even given by Pavelic to nuns and priests, thus betraying the fact that many of them played active roles alongside the Ustashi military"
Two investigators writing on Pavelic's friendship with top clergy write:
"When the Ustashi were ushered into Zagreb by the Germans, Archbishop Stepinac of Croatia immediately offered his congratulations to the poglavnik and held a banquet to celebrate the founding of the new nation...[Stepinac] arranged to have Pavelic received by Pope Pius XII [in Rome]."
Former BBC commentator Avro Manhattan, an expert on Vatican policies, has written: "...here the Catholic Church [erected] a State in complete accord with all her tenets. The result was a monster standing upon the armed might of twin totalitarianisms: the totalitarianism of a ruthless Fascist State and the totalitarianism of Catholicism...What gives to such a creature of Vatican diplomacy its peculiar importance is that here we have an example of the Catholic Church's implementing all her principles unhampered by opposition, or by fear of world opinion.
"The uniqueness of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia lies precisely in this: that it provided a model, in miniature, of what the Catholic Church, had she the power, would like to see in the West and, indeed, everywhere. As such it should be carefully scrutinized. For its significance...is of the greatest import to all the freedom-loving peoples of the world."
Once Pavelic was in power, Archbishop Stepinac issued a Pastoral Letter ordering the Croatian clergy to support the new Ustasha State. "The involvement of Catholic clergy either in active participation or in blessing the Ustashi-run holocaust is well-documented...Archbishop Stepinac headed the committee which was responsible for forcible 'conversions' to Roman Catholicism under threat of death and was also the Supreme Military Apostolic Vicar of the Ustashi Army, which effected the slaughter of those who failed to convert. Stepinac was known as the 'Father Confessor' to the Ustashi and continually bestowed the blessing of Holy Mother Church upon its members and actions."
"After the opening of the Ustasha Parliament, Pavelic attended the Zagreb cathedral, where Archbishop Stepinac offered special prayers for his good friend and ordered a solemn Te Deum to be sung in thanks to God for the establishment of the new regime."
"Unlike the Germans, who were interested only in the quickest and most efficient means of mass extermination, the Catholic Ustashi, with priests and bishops participating and giving their blessing, took great pleasure from 'torturing before killing. Most of their victims were not shot but were strangled, drowned, burned, or stabbed to death.'"
After the war Stepinac was arrested by the Yugoslav government and sentenced to 17 years in prison for war crimes. He only served a few years because of the Vatican's propaganda of the "suffering martyr" and their organizing of "Cardinal Stepinac Associations" which lobbied for his release. [Note--for a job well done he was made a cardinal.]
(paraphrase of "The Slaughter of the Serbs" in Dave Hunt's "A Woman Rides the Beast")
See also: Article 2 and Article 3 dealing with Cardinal Stepinac