Blessed Aloijsije Stepinac?

[Mortimer]

Im very curious about a debate between serb and croat members, i think for the serbs he is "near the ustasha regime" and for the croats and catholic church he is blessed.

Arena open

[Dušan]

About Serbs and Orthodox Christianity, before the WW2 started in Yugoslavia:

"It is sad, but it seems to be a true folk proverb, neither the sea has end, nor in the Vlach the faith"

"The most ideal thing would be for the Serbs to bow their heads before the "vicar of Christ - holly father". Then we too could finally breathe a sigh of relief in this part of Europe, because Byzantium played a terrible role in the history of this part of the world in relation to the Turks."

"Orthodoxy is the biggest curse of Europe, almost bigger than Protestantism. There is no morality, no principles, no truth, no justice, no honesty"


To Pavelić in 1941: "While we cordially welcome you as the head of the Ustaša state, we ask God to bestow his heavenly blessing on you, the leader of our people."



In letter to pope in 1941: "I have no doubt, Holy Father, that there is a desperate struggle for life and death between the schism represented in Serbs and the Catholicism represented in Croats"

[Mortimer]

About Serbs and Orthodox Christianity, before the WW2 started in Yugoslavia:

"It is sad, but it seems to be a true folk proverb, neither the sea has end, nor in the Vlach the faith"

"The most ideal thing would be for the Serbs to bow their heads before the "vicar of Christ - holly father". Then we too could finally breathe a sigh of relief in this part of Europe, because Byzantium played a terrible role in the history of this part of the world in relation to the Turks."

"Orthodoxy is the biggest curse of Europe, almost bigger than Protestantism. There is no morality, no principles, no truth, no justice, no honesty"


To Pavelić in 1941: "While we cordially welcome you as the head of the Ustaša state, we ask God to bestow his heavenly blessing on you, the leader of our people."



In letter to pope in 1941: "I have no doubt, Holy Father, that there is a desperate struggle for life and death between the schism represented in Serbs and the Catholicism represented in Croats"

Im curious what Scarface will say about it.

[Dušan]

"...but from this whole act, i.e. the coup d'état, the fact that Serbs and Croats are two worlds that will never unite as long as one of them is alive comes to light again."

"The spirit of Byzantism and Slavophilism is something terrible."

"No end of the sea, no faith in Vlach. Our Croatian people say it so beautifully."

"Graece fides, nula fides (Orthodox faith, no faith). Our Croatian people firmly believe in that."

[Scarface F]

Today is day dedicated to blessed Alojzije Stepinac. Is that why you opened this thread?

[Scarface F]

".."

The Ustaše unleashed a reign of terror in which 80% of the Jews (30,000 victims) in the NDH were killed, as well as practically all the Roma (25,000 victims), and almost 20% of the Serb population (340,000 victims – see: Number of victims). As a military vicar, Stepinac dispensed blessings to the Ustaše armies. Stepinac initially responded to these mass killings with private letters of protest. Thus, on 14 May 1941, Stepinac received word of an Ustaše massacre of Serb villagers at Glina. On the same day, he wrote to Pavelić saying:

Just now I received news that the Ustaše in Glina executed without trial and investigation 260 Serbs. I know that the Serbs committed some major crimes in our homeland in these last twenty years. But I consider it my bishop's responsibility to raise my voice and to say that this is not permitted according to Catholic teaching, which is why I ask that you undertake the most urgent measures on the entire territory of the Independent State of Croatia, so that not a single Serb is killed unless it is shown that he committed a crime warranting death. Otherwise, we will not be able to count on the blessing of heaven, without which we must perish.

According to Biondich, in the first weeks or even months after the establishment of the NDH, Stepinac may have not known that the atrocities perpetrated by the Ustaše were a key component of their plan. This view supposes that Stepinac considered the atrocities were either spontaneous or the result of so-called "irresponsible elements" who would be held to account by the authorities. His correspondence with Pavelić tends to suggest he did not believe that the Poglavnik would have sanctioned such actions.

In a circular letter to his clergy, Stepinac initially insisted that conversion had to be done freely, and only after religious instruction.

However, the church's instructions were ignored by the Ustaše authorities. The authorities not only conducted forcible conversions, but on occasion they used the prospect of conversion as a means to gather Serbs together so they could kill them, which is what occurred at Glina. Some Serbs demanded that the local Catholic clergy convert them in order to save their lives. Later Stepinac advised individual priests to admit Orthodox believers to the Catholic Church if their lives were in danger, such that this conversion had no validity, allowing them to return to their faith once the danger passed.

[Scarface F]

Im very curious about a debate between serb and croat members, i think for the serbs he is "near the ustasha regime" and for the croats and catholic church he is blessed.

Stepinac is one of greatest sons of Croatian nation in 20th century as is as such celebrated by Croats. He was extremely devoted to his faith and people as well as ascetic. Friend, who hails from same area, gifted me a book which contains letters between Stepinac and his fiancée. She ultimately returned him engagement ring as she realised his life purpose was prisethood and complete service to God and his people.

Seems his fate was already foreshadowed by circumstances in which he was born:

Alojzije Viktor Stepinac was born in Brezarić, a village in the district of Krašić in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on 8 May 1898, to a wealthy viticulturalist, Josip Stepinac, and his second wife Barbara (née Penić). He was the fifth of nine children, and he had three more siblings from his father's first marriage.

His mother, a devout Roman Catholic, prayed constantly that he would enter the priesthood.

The rosary was present in Stepinčev's life from the cradle. Pastor Huzek testified that during a visit to the Stepinac family, he saw a stretched rosary in the blessed man's cradle, and at that moment he said to his mother Barbara: "How could Lojzek not become a saint, when he is already praying for the rosary!"

Stepinac comes from very devoted rural part of NW Croatia also known as "Valley of the Cardinals".

[Scarface F]

Im curious what Scarface will say about it.

Stepinac wanted to serve the common people, and wanted to be a parish priest. [,,,] He was considered "conscientious and devoted to his work".

e was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army for service in World War I, and had to accelerate his studies and graduate ahead of schedule. Sent to a reserve officers school in Rijeka, after six months training he was sent to serve on the Italian Front in 1917 where he commanded Bosnian soldiers. In July 1918, he was captured by Italian forces who held him as a prisoner of war. His family was initially told that he had been killed, and a memorial service held in Krašić. A week after the service, his parents received a telegram from their son telling them he had been captured. He was held in various Italian prisoner-of-war camps until 6 December 1918.

After the formation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 1 December 1918, he was no longer treated as an enemy soldier, and he volunteered for the Yugoslav Legion that had been engaged on the Salonika front. As the war had already ended, he was demobilized with the rank of second lieutenant and returned home in the spring of 1919. [,,,]

Stepinac was appointed coadjutor bishop to Bauer on 28 May 1934 at the age of 36 years, having been a priest for only three-and-a-half years, being selected after all other candidates had been rejected. [,,,]

after considering the issue for several days, Stepinac refused, saying that he considered himself unfit to be appointed as a bishop. [,,,]In response to the many messages of support, Stepinac "was sincerely thankful for all the congratulations, but said that he was not enthusiastic about the appointment because it was too heavy a cross for him"

After his consecration, Stepinac visited Belgrade to pledge his allegiance to King Alexander. The journalist Richard West quotes Stepinac:

I told the King that I was not a politician and that I would forbid my clergy to take part in party politics, but on the other hand I would look for full respect for the rights of Croats. I warned the King that the Croats must not be improperly provoked and even forbidden to use the very name of Croat, something which I had myself experienced.

POLITICAL VIEWS IN INTERWAR YUGOSLAVIA

Stepinac viewed the Yugoslav state as essentially anti-Catholic, particularly after the failure of the Yugoslav Parliament to ratify the already signed Concordat with the Vatican, which would have put the Catholic Church on a more equal footing with the Orthodox Church. He was also sensitive to the fact that the Concordat had been vetoed in the Yugoslav parliament partly due to pressure exerted by the Serbian church.

Despite the fact that in 1921, Catholics made up 39.3 per cent of the population, and Orthodox comprised 46.7 per cent, the Ministry of Faiths initially allocated fourteen times more money to the Orthodox Church than the Catholic Church. While this was adjusted, the funding proportions remained very inequitable. All of these strategies worked to undermine the role of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia. The promotion of Serbdom was at the centre of government education policy, with school books promoting the importance of Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Dalmatia while ignoring Catholic ones. The official newspaper of the Serbian Orthodox Church stated that it wanted to achieve the "victory of Serbian Orthodoxy" throughout Yugoslavia. Under the constant pressure from the state and the Serbian Orthodox Church, between 1923 and 1931 the proportion of Catholics in Yugoslavia declined to 37.4 per cent and that of Serbian Orthodox believers increased to 48.7 per cent.

In 1930's Croatia the Catholic movement shifted rightward toward authoritarian, radical Catholicism. Under Stepinac the hierarchical Crusaders Catholic youth organization grew to 40,000 members by 1938. Via uniformed parades and public rallies, and their slogan "God, Church, Homeland", they blended radical Catholicism and Croat nationalism, opposing liberalism, communism and Greater Serbianism.

In 1941 the Crusaders became enthusiastic supporters of the Ustaše regime. Stepinac was the leader of the Croatian Catholic Action in the Zagreb Archdiocese, whose newspaper, Hrvatska straža (Croatian Guard) proclaimed they are "always radical Croats and always radical Catholics", that "communism is the greatest evil" and "the fruit of the Jew Karl Marx",

[Scarface F]

VIEWS ON RACE AND RACIAL LAWS

In 1937 Archbishop Stepinac founded the Committee for Refugee Assistance in Zagreb, which extensively helped the Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany. Terezija Skringar, the secretary of that Committee, would be apprehended by Gestapo immediately after the arrival of Wehrmacht forces in Zagreb in April 1940, and spent 5 months in German detention. Stepinac preached against racism in several sermons, starting from 1938. "To consider oneself as some higher beings - superhuman and despise another, when it is known that all men are in themselves dust and ashes, and by the mercy of God, all the children of one Heavenly Father", he preached in 1938. Stepinac considered Nazis as "pagans", and always held a reserved attitude in any contact with German representatives. The Gestapo in Zagreb reported that Stepinac held a clear antipathy against Nazism, and made numerous acts to help persecuted Jews in the 1941–1945 period

Stepinac feared both Nazism and communism, even as he disdained western parliamentary democracy. This can be seen from Stepinac's diary entry of 5 November 1940, when he wrote,

If Germany wins [the war], there will be appalling terror and the destruction of little nations. If England wins, the masons, [and] Jews will remain in power ... If the USSR wins, then the devil will have authority over both the world and hell.

Following Pavelić's proclamation of the Race Laws, Stepinac praised Pavelić to the Pope, as "a true Catholic practicing believer" and stated that "it was a much lesser evil that the Croats passed this law rather than that the Germans took all power into their own hands"

All men and all races are children of God; all without distinction. Those who are Gypsies, Black, European, or Aryan all have the same rights ... for this reason, the Catholic Church had always condemned, and continues to condemn, all injustice and all violence committed in the name of theories of class, race, or nationality. It is not permissible to persecute Gypsies or Jews because they are thought to be an inferior race.

In a sermon on 25 October 1942, he further commented on racial acceptance:

We affirm then that all peoples and races descend from God. In fact, there exists but one race ... The members of this race can be white or black, they can be separated by oceans or live on the opposing poles, [but] they remain first and foremost the race created by God, according to the precepts of natural law and positive Divine law as it is written in the hearts and minds of humans or revealed by Jesus Christ, the son of God, the sovereign of all peoples.

Stepinac was involved directly and indirectly in efforts to save Jews from persecution. Amiel Shomrony (Emil Schwartz), was the personal secretary of Miroslav Šalom Freiberger (the chief rabbi in Zagreb) until 1942. In the actions for saving Jews, Shomrony acted as the mediator between the chief rabbi and Stepinac. He later stated that he considered Stepinac "truly blessed" since he did the best he could for the Jews during the war. Allegedly the Ustaša government at this point agitated at the Holy See for him to be removed from the position of archbishop of Zagreb, this however was refused due to the fact that the Vatican did not recognize the Ustaše state (despite Italian pressure).

Stepinac and the papal nuncio to Belgrade mediated with Royal Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops, urging that the Yugoslav Jews be allowed to take refuge in the occupied Balkan territories to avoid deportation. He also arranged for Jews to travel via these territories to the safe, neutral states of Turkey and Spain, along with Istanbul-based nuncio Angelo Roncalli. He sent some Jews for safety to Rev Dragutin Jeish, who was killed during the war by the Ustaše on suspicion of supporting the Partisans.

In May 16 report to the Pope, Stepinac wrote:

It is obvious for now, the pressure of the Germans, who are very much felt in the laws against Jews, although they claim that they do not want to interfere in the internal affairs of the Croatian State. Indeed, the racist law passed these days must be attributed to the severe pressures of Germany, because I know from personal encounters with people who run the state that they do not intend to keep the law in full force for long as it has been published. It is much less evil that the Croats passed this law than if the Germans had taken all power into their own hands.

[Scarface F]

Conclusion:

He was in many ways a typical son of the Church in Croatia of that time, fervidly pious, narrow and dogmatic, believing, in his own words, that "Jews, freemasons and communists" were "the worst enemies of the Church", and that the Orthodox Serbs, the schismatics must whenever possible be brought back to the true Church. This was coupled not only with great courage, but with social concern and charity, especially when he was confronted with individual cases; he was a good pastor and felt close to his people. The impression he makes is also, unexpectedly, one of simplicity and personal modesty. He was conscious of the dignity and weight of his office but never of himself. His courage, which was always great, increased as the pressures on him grew heavier and in the end could be described as heroic; this and his devotion to duty made flight or even withdrawal from his diocese unthinkable.

From May 1942 he attacked the actions of the [ustaše] government in sermon after sermon, not only the forcible conversions but the anti-semitism and anti-Serbianism of the regime, the taking and shooting of hostages and the forcible breaking-up of Jewish-Gentile marriages, and he wrote bitterly to Pavelić about the conditions in the concentration camps, particularly the one at Jasenovac. He made repeated private interventions in individual cases, he refused to allow converted Jews to wear the yellow star in church, and he forbad military chaplains to administer the ustaSa oath if a crossed dagger and revolver were lying in front of the crucifix. Eventually he arranged for about 7,000 children, who were either orphans or had lost their families, to be accepted into Catholic homes, but forbad the clergy to baptize them into the Catholic Church. The ustaša authorities were furious with him, Pavelić detested him and according to Fr Masucci, secretary of the Vatican representative in Zagreb, asked the Vatican on three occasions to withdraw him. His friend Ivan Meštrović the sculptor, who met him in Rome during one of Stepinac's visits to the Vatican, wrote later in his memoirs that Stepinac told him that he expected to be killed either by the ustaše or the communists,

Stepinac was arrested on 18 September, and was only given the indictment on the 23rd−meaning his defense counsel Ivo Politeo was given only six to seven days to prepare. Stepinac's defense counsel was only allowed to call twenty witnesses—while the prosecution was allowed to call fifty-eight, most from outside Stepinac's diocese. The President of the Court refused to hear fourteen witnesses for the defense.

On 11 October 1946, the court found Stepinac guilty of collaboration with the fascist Ustaše regime. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He served five years in the prison at Lepoglava until he was released in a conciliatory gesture by Tito, on condition that he either retire to Rome or be confined to his home parish of Krašić. He chose to stay in Krašić, saying he would never leave "unless they put me on a plane by force and take me over the frontier."

The Yugoslav Communist trial against Stepinac's is seen by some as a part of coordinated effort by the Eastern Europe communist regimes to severe Catholic Church in their countries from Rome, and was near contemporaneous with the Communist trials against the Cardinals Josyf Slipyj of Ukraine, József Mindszenty of Hungary, Josef Beran of Czechoslovakia, and Stefan Wyszyński of Poland.

He refused to leave Yugoslavia and opted to live in Krašić under a form of house arrest, to which he was transferred on 5 December 1951.