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You relish to further the character assassination of this saintly man repeating at nauseoun the scandalous falsehoods thrown against Cardinal Stepinac during his Stalinist trial by Tito's regimen

CARDINAL ALOYSIUS STEPINAC IN LIGHT OF DOCUMENTATION

by Tihomil Rada

Within the scope of this Academy dedicated as always to the last remembrance of the archbishop of Zagreb Aloysius Stepinac, cardinal of the Catholic church and Croatian national hero, I will endeavour to describe briefly his historical significance and personality on the basis of the facts and attestations from that time. This profile will include the decisive moments of this life before the trial, his historical speech before the court of the communist party in Zagreb in 1946 and the repercussions of that trial in the world press, concluding with the salient facts of his life in prison up to his martyr's death on February 19th, 1960.

The biography of this great man whose memory we honour is simple and magnificent at the same time. Simple and moderate because Stepinac was born as the seventh child of a humble peasant in the village of Brezaric, parish of Krasic, on May 8th, 1898. At the age of 18 he was sent to the Italian front where he received two medals for bravery. Then he was taken as a prisoner of war by the Allies, from which he went on the Solun front where he again distinguished himself for bravery. It was enough to win him the Star of Karageorgevic, the highest Serbian decoration, which is even today acknowledged in this the second Yugoslavia.

In 1930 he obtained his doctor's degree in theology and philosophy. That same year at the age of 32 he was ordained to the priesthood on the feast of Christ the King.
The following year he returned to Croatia to be invested with ceremony in the cathedral of Zagreb. Two years later in 1934 Pope Pius XI appointed him assistant to the archbishop with the possibility of succeeding to that post himself, a move which caused genuine astonishment in the Catholic world because Stepinac at the age of 36 was the youngest member of the Catholic hierarchy to attain such a position. Only three years later in 1937, at the age of 39, Stepinac became the archbishop of Zagreb after the death of Dr. Antun Bauer.

From that epoch comes the valuable attestation of the Irish writer and priest Anthony H. Count O'Brien who for two full years was often a guest at the archbishop's table. (1) O'Brien wrote of the archbishop's social work, which consisted mainly of harbouring persecuted German Jews and even some communists; of the archbishop's Yugoslavsim prior to 1918; of his opposition to the Stojadinvoic government and his endorsement of the Agreement of 1939; and of Stepinac's considerable piety that O'Brien compared to that of Pope Pius XII.

This sketch of Stepinac by O'Brien indeed corresponded to Stepinac's nature, character and education. Educated in Rome and Zagreb, Stepinac adopted a modern and progressive viewpoint in regard to the relations between church and state, between clerical and national interests.

Prior to anyone among us, and perhaps in the world generally, Stepinac understood the extent of the persecution of the Jews and the communists in Germany. He took pains to protect both Jews and communists through his refugee committee with the consequence that the German ambassador in Belgrade reproached the Yugoslav government.

Soon in 1941 the Independent State of Croatia (3) became a reality. Stepinac, then as before later on, vindicated the right of the Croatian people to self-determination and to their own state. But this fact did not blunt his political judgement and already in May 1941 he refused to participate in the celebration occasioned by the signing of the so-called Rome agreements.

At that time, either to the church or directly to the authorities, (4) he raised his voice against the persecution of the Gypsies and massacre of the Serbs in Glina. In July 1941 Stepinac said the following words in a speech from the pulpit of the cathedral in Zagreb: "We are against and call God to witness against all forced conversions to the Catholic Church. We maintain that the Church has taken all possible steps to protect the Orthodox."

In the same spirit he opened his sermon on the feast of Christ the King in 1942, saying: "The world may destroy all material goods but cannot belittle the dignity of the human person."

I could enumerate many more attestations and documents about Stepinac during the war. All of it has been written in the foreign press, particularly in the Swiss newspapers, for instance in the "Neue Zuricher Zeitung", the "Basler Nachrichten" and others; and in the Allied newspapers, particularly the News Digest, an organ of the British Ministry of Information during the war. Among the other facts of that time one should note further his reception and protection of Slovene priests persecuted by the Germans; his aid to those interned in Italy; his contacts with the Allies in Italy with the intention of preventing air raids over Zagreb; and his care for the Orthodox children of the province of Kordun.

Not long after the end of the war the new regime incarcerated him for 17 days after which time he was released on the order of Tito who wished to meet him. On the occasion of his meeting with Tito, he said the following: "Allow me to tell you that I am for the freedom of the people and accordingly I will raise my voice against you every time you should encroach on this freedom".

At the outset of September 1945 all the newspaper carried a picture of him beside Vladimir Bakaric and others who were creating the government of the People's Republic of Croatia. Yet already on September 20th Stepinac signed the well-known pastoral letter at the Episcopal synod in which were brought to light precise facts concerning the mass killings of priest and monks; 243 killed, 169 jailed, 89 disappeared, altogether 501.

In addition to the above, 19 theological students were killed, seven monks and nuns. The pastoral letter went on to list the names of the imprisoned bishops: Carevic, Simark, and 28 friars killed at Siroki Brijek. (5) That was more than enough.

The result was that he was attackd not only in the press but even bodily, as once in Zapresic on November 4th, 1945, an assault which the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained as an attack of the church on the OZNA! (Department of National Protection).

At that time Randolf Churchill, son of Winston Churchill and a man most familiar with Tito's regime, wrote the following comment in the London newspaper Daily Telegraph of January 23rd, 1946: "Yugoslav propaganda against the Archbishop of Zagreb has no other purpose than to prepare the ground for a trial against him."

The prelude to the trial was the indictment of the priest Salic, Stepinac's secretary, on September 9th, 1946 in Zagreb after eleven months of investigation on his case. A few days later, on September 17th, it turned into a travesty in the style of Stalin's trials of Zinoviev, Lev Borasavich, Kamener and others before the war. Two of those indicted, Salic and Martincic, implicated Stepinac in the so-called "Crusade trial". The next day the pulbic persecutor Jacov Blazevic gave the order to arrest Stepinac.

All around Croatia mobs gather to attack priests, churches and monasteries, expecting the death sentence for Stepinac. In the meantime, people could not be persuaded to sign the petition against the archbishop. For instance, 7,000 workers and employees of the Zagreb Railway refused.

The director of the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) for Yugoslavia, Hochstetter, wrote at length about this in the Saturday Evening Post of November 21st, 1946.

At the same time bishop Lach was arrested in Koprivica, bishop Bonefacic was attacked in Imotski, bishop Pusic was maltreated while presiding at a confirmation on the island of Hvar. By this the authorities openly declared that the "people have the right to attack their enemies..." As a consequence of these provocations six priests were killed.

In the meantime on September 23rd, 1946 Jacov Blazevic brought charges against Stepinac. Already by September 30th Stepinac was summoned to court. He saw his lawyer Dr. Ivan Politeo only once and only for one hour on September 27th. Indeed the trial was prepared for a whole year and yet Stepinac was given only six days to prepare his defense.

When on September 25th Mgr. Hurley, the papal nuncio in Belgrade approached Tito for his persecution of the church in general and for the trial of Stepinac in particular, Tito replied laconically: "In Yugoslavia everyone is equal before the law."

The following are the main points of the charges brought by Blazevic:

a. ollaboration with the authority of the NDH (so-called independent state of Croatia) and the post of chaplain-general
b. aptism of Serbian Orthodox
c. he "Crusade"
d. concealment of the state documents belonging to the NDH
Allow me to pass over these four points briefly in the light of the facts.

Ad a) It has already been said that in May 1941 the archbishop refused to participate in the signing of the Rome agreements which stipulated that the crown of Zvonimir had to be passed on to the Italian duke of Spoleto, designated thereby as "King of Croatia". When finally in 1943 Stepinac went on his customary visit to the Vatican that he mitigated his attitude towards the authorities. In an issue dated September 3rd, 1943 the German newspaper "Völkischer Beobachter", official organ of Hitler's Nazi party, wrote that the archbishop of Zagreb publicly attacked the regime of the NDH.

In December 1943 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the NDH complained to the papal legate Marconi that "Stepinac never has consented to the regime of the NDH." It sought to influence the archbishop to change his attitude toward the regime.

I could in this context enumerate many other facts but all of it could be reduced to this that the erstwhile communist regime in Croatia did not differentiate between the regime and the state. Therefore it cruelly persecuted everyone who declared himself for the Croatian state, but against the regime, as was the case with Stepinac.

As for his post of chaplain-general Stepinac was in the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, for which reason his post entailed no responsibility, so that even the Ustashe regime of the NDH held him accountable. The only one who asked him to render account of this was the public prosecutor Jacov Blazevic.

Ad b) Concerning that point in the charges Dr. N. Katicic, the state's defense attorney in Stepinac's trial, expressed himself most judiciously. The documents of this trial are found in the university library in Zagreb and abroad in the library of Father Theodore Dragoun in French. (6)

Ad c) The question of the "Crusade" is a typical example of procedures employed by the OZNA whereby Father Salic and a few others were tortured in order to obtain evidence. These letters were produced as proof of "terrorist activities". The archbishop himself replied to these, among other things, in his famous speech before the court in Zagreb.

Ad d) It is known that before the collapse of the NDH Stepinac refused to accept the regency offered to him in Croatia during the anarchy (Nicija vlast). On the contrary Stepinac consented in the name of the archbishop to keep the official archives of the NDH and immediately informed the new authority in Zagreb of this on May 8th, 1945. He said that the archbishopric had received authorization from the partisan authority itself. In the meantime at the trial itself Jacov Blazevic took care not to have these documents brought out.

At the trial itself the archbishop delivered a speech in his defense on October 3rd, 1946 after which he reverted to silence, answering every question of Jacov Blazevic and Zarko Vimpulsek, president of the court, with a laconic "I have nothing to reply". With such behaviour Stepinac brought Blazevic into a comic and ludicrous situation.

After Stepinac's declaration the defense lawyer Dr. Ivo Politeo perorated in his characteristically remarkable fashion, a courageous and dauntless thing to do in those times. While by his arguments he refuted all the points of the charges, he declared: "There is no question of Aloysius Stepinac's defending the regime of the NDH. But he is talking about the Croatian national state, such as is undoubtedly the right of the Croatian nation. After all in our days the Croatian nation has its own republic"(7).

Upon which Dr. Politeo resumed: "Aloysius Stepinac is the most authentic representative of the Catholic Church in Croatia, even in all of Yugoslavia. Whenever Stjepan Radic, a leader who best plumbed the soul of the Croatian people, would deliver his speeches he would start with the words: Blessed be God and the Blessed Virgin Mary. And in our day we can freely say that every time Aloysius Stepinac takes up the defense of the Catholic Church, the great majority of the Croatian people is with him".

Stepinac was sentenced on October 11, 1946 to sixteen years of forced labour and imprisonment, deprived of his civic rights and his property confiscated.

After his condemnation public opinion around the world was astounded. Thus the erstwhile Secretary of State Dean Acheson declared the following on the day of his sentence: "The circumstances surrounding the indictment and condemnation of the archbishop are more than regrettable. The Catholic Church in Croatia is being persecuted by the inhumane methods of a police regime."

A little later the great French writer Francois Mauriac wrote in "Le Figaro" on December 2nd, 1946. "We have read the declarations and assembled the attestations and are convinced that the Archbishop of Zagreb has been sentenced to sixteen years of imprisonment despite his innocence. If after this Christians are silent then the stones themselves will speak out."

A month after Mauriac's statement Winston Churchill himself spoke in the British Parliament: "This is a political trial with the intention of causing the Catholic Church in Croatia to split with the Vatican. Tito, after all, has openly declared it. One should not forget that the resistance to atheism is stronger when there is outside support. Here I refer to the Pope.

The trial itself has no connection with justice and is indeed a violation of it. Tito's regime cares nothing for justice. The martyrdom of Archbishop Stepinac would be complete should the sentence be applied and executed. God grant that the archbishop endure in spirit and in body all that he will have to endure in order that Christianity may prevail thanks to his courage."

These are only some of the individual reactions. I could enumerate hundreds such as those of Cardinals Spellman and Griffin; of bishop Fulton Sheen and the Serbian Orthodox bishop Milovijevic; of the Jewish National Conference in the U.S.A.; of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches; of Ivan Mestrovic, Vladko Macek, Bogdan Radica; of the Irish parliament and so on.

The same with all the world newspapers, of which we will mention "The New York Times", "The New York Herald Tribune", "The New Leader", "American Journal" and particularly "L'Osservatore Romano" and many Swiss newspapers. It is particularly pertinent to quote The New York Times of October 13th, 1946: "The trial of Archbishop Stepinac was a purely political one with the outcome determined in advance. The trial and sentence of this Croatian prelate are in contradiction with the Yugoslavia's pledge that it will respect human rights and the fundamental liberties of all without reference to race, sex, language and creed. Archbishop Stepinac was sentenced and will be incarcerated as part of the campaign against his church, guilty only of being the enemy of Communism."

It is likewise pertinent to quote the declaration of Lois S. Breier, representative of the American Jewish Committee, uttered on October 13th, 1946 at the Bronx Round Table: "This eminent ecclesiastical dignitary was indicted for collaborating with the Nazism. We Jews deny this. We know from his past that since 1934 he has been a sincere friend of the Jews whom Hitler and his henchmen destroyed. He was one of the very rare men in Europe who raised his voice against the Nazis tyranny at a time when it was very difficult and dangerous for him to do so. This man who is today a victim of a shameful trial, during the whole Nazi epoch publicly and dauntlessly denounced the horrible Nürmberg laws. His opposition to Nazi terrorism never let up. He likewise denounced the infamy of the yellow armbands, asserting that it was an affront to human dignity. It was all to his credit that this procedure was abandoned in Croatia."

In contrast to the reaction of the cultured and free world Tito made this comment to the press in Zagreb in a statement on the trial: "We are accused of having jailed Stepinac only in order to remove him. In the meantime, before passing his sentence, I have already told Mgr. Hurley, the papal nuncio, that he must recall Stepinac himself or we will jail him."

Djilas himself when he was still in power asked Ivan Mestrovic what he thought about the sentence passed on Stepinac. He replied the following: "To tell you the truth I, and not only I, think that Stepinac is a man of integrity and firm character who will not be broken. He was indeed innocent despite his sentence but how often in history has it happened that innocent people have been sentenced out of political necessity."(8)

After he had spent five years in the prison at Lepoglava Stepinac was interned in the end of 1951 in the parish hall in Krasic. Since that time until his martyr's death on February 10th, 1960 there had been many documents revealing the person and the character of the Archbishop of Zagreb. As soon as he arrived in Karsic Stepinac gainsaid the information broadcast over Radio Belgrade: "Radio Belgrade is mistake when it speaks of me as the 'former Archbishop Stepinac'. I am the Archbishop of Zagreb. They can oust me from this country by force alone."

Already at the beginning of 1952 he complained to the correspondent of the Belgian newspaper "La Gazette d'Anvers" with these words: "My freedom is illusory. I cannot freely receive anyone, being under constant surveillance. But I would rather die than yield."

The circumstances of the archbishop's internment considerably aggravated him after the Vatican's secret consistorium of January 12th, 1953 in which Pope Pius XII appointed the Archbishop of Zagreb cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, saying among other things this: "In this celebration we remember with heavy heart our distinguished brother the Archbishop of Zagreb to whom it is not given to share this joy with us and to return to his homeland.

Although he is absent, we embrace him with paternal love. I fervently wish everyone to know that the dignity of cardinal has been bestowed upon him. Our only wish is to reward his great merits and the staunch faith of his nation, which in these troubled times courageously confessed the creed of Catholicism. Our conscience does not permit us to accept the indictment and sentence passed on the Archbishop of Zagreb. Besides this we are answering the wishes and hopes of the whole Catholic world when we elevate to the honour of cardinal of the Catholic Church this exemplary pastor who epitomizes the apostolic creed and the strength of Christianity."

From that time dates the widespread upheaval instigated by the UDBA (Yugoslav Secret Police Intelligence Service) against the clergy and the increasingly difficult position of the interned archbishop, now cardinal, in Krasic. The archbishop's torments and sufferings came to a climax before his very death. Of this we have grim attestations in the letter sent by him from Krasci to the district court in Osijek on December 4th, 1959. (9)

In that historical letter Stepinac among other things said this: "My present state of health is a direct result of that sentence which among other things caused the indignation of the whole world.

The thirteen years of my imprisonment and internment have brought me to the edge of the grave. Up to this date I have undergone about 34 blood transfusions, all in vain. When Dr. Sercer sought to have me sent to the seaside for the purpose of convalescence, the authorities refused. I told the doctors that it is impossible for me to go for a walk, which I have not done for a year, not because it is expressly forbidden, but because the guards follow me everywhere. I fight against the ideology of the communist party because I am conscious of its sins and errors. But it is possible to infer thereby that I am subverting the state? If it is a legitimate battle that the communist party has waged these past 15 years with fire and sword against the Catholic Church, how then can one impute to me as a crime that I have denounced such operations? How then can one consider as a crime my reproaches uttered in defense of the Catholic Church?

Have I perhaps infringed upon the Declaration of Human Rights as the U. N adopted it or has someone else perhaps trampled down the fundamental rights of the human person? Is it not enough that your leader has recognized that I was summoned to the court without just cause and that the sentence was my death warrant, as I have just explained to you?

I must add further that at the present time I am with one foot in the grave and that I will soon be entirely in the grave. But if you should summon me to court or if you should come here with then intention of subjecting me to interrogation, then you ought to know that I will refuse to answer any question. In advance I refuse to accept any responsibility for the scandal, which your interrogation of me in such a state of health may occasion in world opinion. If the regime considers that my death is slow in coming then let it do with me, as it did de facto fourteen years ago.

St. Cyprian gave to his executioner 25 gold pieces before his decapitation. I possess no gold. All that I can bestow is a prayer for him who will execute me that the Lord may forgive him and grant me a peaceful death. My guards can continue to watch me in accordance with your instructions whose purpose is to render my life intolerable. I know my duty. God have mercy, I will accomplish it to the end without hatred for anyone but also without fear of anyone."

Two months after this distressing letter Stepinac breathed his last in Krasic on Wednesday, February 10th, 1960 at 2:15 p.m. according to the testimony of vicar Don Vranekovic who thus describes Stepinac's last moments: "It was 1:55 p.m. when certain nuns entered. They could hardly finger their prayer beads for weeping. He looked at the picture of the Blessed Virgin and just barely repeated the Hail Mary. Exactly at 2 p.m. he cried out loud for his candle and with one hand I helped him to hold the burning candle which he had predicted on Candlemas this very same year that he would very soon need, while with the other I supported his head so as to facilitate his breathing. The nuns were praying and weeping. The archbishop was looking about still fully conscious and praying "May thy will be done.' They were the last words that we heard from him. Three or four painful breaths later he expired. But with a prayer on his lips and in his heart, conscious of his destination, he went to meet God's judgement. This was the death of a righteous man.

The guards admitted into the parish hall only the sacristan Nicholas who with the sound of the great bell announced to the parish the death of a man of God. In one moment the whole of Krasic poured out on to the street and everyone was in black and mourning. People en masse came to the church and prayed. And so it happened that one who beside the name Aloysius also bore the name Victor became a true "Victor" because his soul rests in heaven and his body has come to its rightful place among his predecessor archbishops."(10)

On Saturday, February 13th, 1960 Stepinac was solemnly and honourably buried in the cathedral in Zagreb. About him as contemporary once said "he came to the trial as spiritual shepherd of Croatia and came out of it a national legend and a hero." Here "beside the Holy King"- as A.G. Matos has sung - rests in peace the martyred body of the great man on whose grave "in the darkness of night any woman can come with a heavy cross of one whole nation". And indeed the grave and image of Aloysius Stepinac is the great hope of Croatia.