Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: Cardinal Stepinac - Article 2
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: May, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/Vatican/vs001b.htm
A Series of Articles on Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac of the Catholic Church
[contributor's comments in brackets]
Online book:
The Vatican's Holocaust
By Avro Manhattan
http://www.reformation.org/holocaus.html
Introduction
Mr Manhattan is a world renowned authority on Roman Catholicism in politics. A resident of London, during WWII he operated a radio station called "Radio Freedom". He also wrote political commentaries for BBC.
Most of all this book is a well documented account of atrocities that Croatian Ustashi government committed on Serbian people during WWII - and all in name of (Catholic) Christianity.
It is realy hard to comprehend the level of Ustashi barbarity. The truth about their bestiality really borders with unbelievable... And the author insists that a reader should grasp at least the comprehendable part of the Holocaust.
Though, again, most of the book is about Croatian Ustashi barbarity, as most illustrative example of how far Catholic intolerance can get, it is about Catholic political might, in general.
Petar Makara (Makarov)
PIUS XII: VATICAN AND USTASHE
pg. 100-104
"...The revival of a policy of forcible conversion assumes an even more portentous significance when one remembers that it occurred with the tacit approval of the Vatican. Had the Vatican disapproved not a single priest could have taken part in the massacres or forcible conversions of Orthodox Serbs. A village priest can act only with the approval of minor Hierarchs who themselves cannot move without the permission of their Bishop, while the Bishop, in his turn, must act according to the instructions of his Archbishop; the Archbishop only on those of the Primate; the Primate on the direct instructions of the Vatican. The Vatican is the personal dominion of the Pope. The Pope being the central pivot of the vast Hierarchical machinery, it follows that the ultimate responsibility for all members of the clergy-or, to be more precise, for the collective action of any given national Hierarchy - rests with him. This cannot be otherwise. For policies of great import must be submitted to him before their promotion by all Hierarchies the world over, the Pope being their sole authority. If the responsibility for the monstrous persecutions of Orthodox Serbs rests with the head of the National Hierarchy-i.e. Stepinac-it has automatically to rest also with the Head of the Universal Church, without whose consent the Catholic Hierarchy would not have dared to act--i.e. with Pius XII.
Pius Xll could not plead ignorance of what was going on in Croatia by bringing forward the excuse of the obstacles of war. Communication between Rome and Croatia was as easy and as free in peace-time. From the very beginning of hostilities the Nazi Ambassador at the Vatican was treated as of far greater importance than all the Allied diplomats. In 1940 - 2 the Vatican was on the most cordial terms with Hitler. Political and religious Ustashi leaders came and went between Rome and Zagreb as freely as did the Germans and Italians, the Ustashi State then being a satellite of Nazi Germany, and hence a province of the Nazi Empire. Moreover, the Pope knew what was happening in Croatia, not only through the Hierarchical administrative machinery, which kept him up to date on all Croatian events, but also through other reliable sources. They were:
(a) The Papal Legate. Pius XII, it should never be forgotten, had a personal representative in Croatia, whose task was to implement Vatican policy and coordinate it with that of Pavelic, as well as reporting on religious and political matters to the Pope himself. The Papal Legate to Croatia was Mgr. Marcone, who openly blessed the Ustashi publicly gave the Fascist salute, and encouraged Catholics (e.g. when he went to Mostar) to be "faithful to the Holy See, which had helped that same people for centuries against Eastern barbarism"-that is say, against the Orthodox Church and the Serbs. Thus, the Pope's official representative openly instigated religious persecution, as well as praying for victory "under the leadership of the Head of the State Pavelic," against the Yugoslav National Liberation Army in 1944 - 5.
(b) Cardinal Tiseran, head of the Holy Congregation of Eastern Churches. This congregation's specific task was to deal with Eastern Churches. Cardinal Tiseran received detailed reports of every forcible conversion and massacre in Croatia. Between April and June, 19 over 100,000 Orthodox Serbs were massacred; yet Cardinal Tiseran on July 17, 1941, had the audacity to declare that Archbishop Stepinac would now do a great work for the development of Catholicism in "the Independent State of Croatia...where there are such great hopes for the conversion of those who are not of the true faith."
(c) Ante Pavelic, who, by his representative to the Vatican, through whom Pius XII sent "special blessing to the Leader (Pavelic)," forwarded regular reports, at times straight from the Minister of Religions, about the "rapid" progress of the Catholicization of the New Croatia.
(d) Last but not least, Archbishop Stepinac himself, who in person visited Pius XII twice, and who supplied His Holiness with figures of the forcible conversions. In an official document, dated as late as May 8, 1944, His Eminence Archbishop Stepinac, head of the Catholic Hierarchy, in fact, informed the Holy Father that to date "244,000 Orthodox Serbs" had been "converted to the Church of God."
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Even in Zagreb, where His Grace Stepinac and the "visitor" Marcone resided, the Serbian Orthodox Bishop Dositej, was beaten and tortured to such an extent that he became insane.
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Parallel to the onslaughts made against the Serbs, was the extermination of the Jews, which continued with a vengeance, and applauded by the Catholic Croatian press. Just as the terrorism had nearly reached its climax, the "Katolicki Tjednik", the organ of Catholic Action and specifically of Archbishop Saric of Sarajevo, published an article signed by the priest Franjo Kralik, entitled: "Why Are THE JEWS BEING PERSECUTED?" Among the items is the following text:
"The descendants of those who hated Jesus, who condemned him to death, who crucified him and immediately persecuted his disciples, are guilty of greater excesses than those of their forefathers. Greed is growing. The Jews who led Europe and the entire world to disaster -morally, culturally and economically-developed an appetite which nothing less than the world as a whole could satisfy.... Satan helped them to invent Socialism and Communism. Love has its limits. The movement for freeing the world from Jews is a movement for the renascence of human dignity. The all-wise and Almighty God is behind this movement."
The "renaissance" of human dignity in Satellite Croatia reached its peak with the deliberate mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
A little later the same paper gave further emphasis: "The greatest enemies of the Croatian people are the Orthodox Serbs and, as in all Europe, the Jews, and Communists." This was, at least, what Roman clericalism had preached in all the countries of Europe, even before it had fallen beneath the yoke of Hitler. The following is an excerpt from the pastoral letter of the primate of Poland, Cardinal Hlond: "It is an actual fact that the Jews fight against the Catholic Church. They are free-thinkers, and constitute the vanguard of atheism, bolshevism and revolution. The Jewish influence on morals is fatal. It is also true that the Jews are committing frauds, practicing usury and dealing in white slavery." The Croatian Ustashi exterminated 80% of Yugoslav Jews. These warm-hearted testimonials of approbation, cited by the Catholic-Croatian authorities who had adopted the policy of racial and religious purges practiced by the Ustashi, could be multiplied without end.
Still again the following quotation: "Blessings upon the first national Croatian banner in Bosnia took place in the convent of Nazareth before the Sisters of Christ's precious Blood . . . near Banja Luka. The standard-bearer was Fra.Viktor Gutic. It so happened that Fra. Viktor Gutic was none other than the Ustashi prefect who, a month before, had ordered the "liquidation" of Serbian Orthodox Bishop Platon, of Banja Luka, with all the refinements of cruelty which have, heretofore, been described. Perhaps Christ's blood was cherished by the good sisters of Nazareth but the blood of Christians, such as the Serbian Orthodox was worth nothing to them.
(http://suc.suc.org/~kosta/tar/knjige/book-xxxx86-vaticans_holocaust-avro_manhattan-prikaz-makara.html; link no longer active
See also: Article 1 and Article 3 of this series