Review article
https://doi.org/10.47960/2712-1844.2017.3.179
Stepinac's Interventions with Pavelic
Ratko Perić
Abstract
Serbian Patriarch Irinej Gavrilovic addressed Pope Francis
on April 30, 2014, asking him to reject the canonization
of the martyr Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, the Archbishop of
Zagreb (a coadjutor from 1934, an ordinary from 1937 to
1960, sede impedita from 1946 - in jail until 1952 and in detention
until his death). The Patriarch's cause against canonization:
Archbishop Stepinac was "mostly silent" about
everything that was happening in the Independent State
of Croatia (NDH). And, silence is consent. Such a church
representative cannot be a Christian model. The author of
this paper, based on the evidence published before the Patriarch's
letter, has shown that Archbishop Stepinac, during
the period of four years of NDH from April 10, 1941
to May 8, 1945, i.e. for 48 months, intervened more than
360 times in personal meetings with Croatian authorities
in Zagreb either by mail to some Croatian ministers, or
through public sermons, persuasions and lectures. In particular,
the author has focused on the contacts between
archbishop Stepinac and Ante Pavelic, the head of NDH.
He summarized and chronologically presented 21 letters
of Stepinac to Pavelic and 11 meetings of Stepinac with
Pavelic, with brief comments attached. Pavelic neither returned
a single visit nor personally responded to Stepinac's
letters. Nevertheless, the Archbishop was persistent and
resolute and intervened whenever he considered it necessary
to do so, no matter how political authorities felt about
his letters, inquiries and requests. Therefore, Archbishop
Stepinac was not silent, he was speaking, writing, and mediating
as much as he could, regardless of the results of his
interventions. At least, it cannot be said that Archbishop
Stepinac was "mostly silent" about all that was happening
at the time of NDH. When Pavelic saw that everything
went wrong and had to flee from Croatia, he invited Archbishop
Stepinac and offered him to take control over Croatia.
Stepinac rejected the offered political power remaining
at his archbishop's position.
Keywords
Pope Francis; Patriarch Irinej; Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, Archbishop; poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelic; Independent State of Croatia; Croatian Bishops' Conference
Hrčak ID:
187173
URI
Publication date:
5.10.2017.
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