THE POPE IN CROATIA
With his usual exquisite timing, just as the disgusting war criminal Mladic is finally dragged to the international criminal court at The Hague up pops Mr Ratzinger parading his Christian conscience in Croatia. Now Croatia has an interesting history, one in which the Catholic Church has played a significant role. With the creation of The Kingdom of Yugoslavia after World War One Croatia was incorporating along with the Muslims of Bosnia into a single state dominated by the Orthodox Serbs. The kingdom was inherently unstable with a strong strand of Croatian nationalism pulling at the threads of the new state. With the Outbreak of the Second World War and the German defeat and Occupation of Yugoslavia Croatia was set up as a puppet Nazi state governed by the fascist Ustashe under the premiership of Ante Pavelić. ‘This resulted in a campaign of terror and extermination conducted by the Ustashe against two million Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and Communists between 1941 and 1945.’* It was during this period that the Catholic Church really came into its own. ‘From the outset, Pope Pius XII and the Vatican knew of the racist and anti-Semitic statements made by the Croats even as the Pope met with Pavelic and bestowed his papal blessing. Not only did the Croatian Catholic clergy know the details of the massacre of the Serbs and the virtual elimination of the Jews and Gypsies but many of the priests took a leading role! Monks and priests worked as executioners in hastily set up concentration camps where they massacred Serbs. These killings had gotten so brutal that even the Nazis protested against them. By the most reliable reckoning, the Catholic fascists massacred 487,000 Orthodox Serbs and 27,000 Gypsies between 1941 and 1945 in the independent State of Croatia. In addition, approximately 30,000 of the 45,000 Jews died in the slaughter. **
'Even though petitions against the Catholics and their massacres got sent to Pius XII, not once did Pacelli, the "infallible" Pope, ever show anything but benevolence toward the leaders of the Pavelic regime. His silence on the matter matched his silence about his knowledge of Auschwitz.’ ***
Perhaps the Second World War is all something of ‘ancient history’ for some of my younger readers, however in 2001 I visited Croatia, this just a few years after the break-up of Yugoslavia. During this period I visited Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina. On the road to Mostar we stopped at a little roadside café, and were directed by the guide up to what turned out to be the ruins of a small Muslim village, houses battered by sledgehammers, household belongings scattered and thrown into the mud. The mosque or what remained of it smashed and with the phrase, HA HA HA, written in English upon the wall. Thus a Muslim community that had lasted well over a century was destroyed, one suspects, in a matter of hours. As to its inhabitants what can only shudder to think what may have become of them.
In the Muslim quarter of Mostar itself I cannot imagine that the scale of destruction had been seen in Europe World war two, this including the wreckage of the famous bridge, shelled not for any strategic reasons but out of spite, all committed by the Croatian forces with catholic rosary beads and crosses hanging around their necks.
Given all of this you would think that Mr Ratzinger might have some concerns, perhaps some apologies for past misdemeanours. Not a bit of it, no he acclaims Croatia as a beacon of family values, speaking On Sunday evening, just prior to leaving Croatia, the Pope prayed second vespers – or evening prayers – at the tomb of the former Archbishop of Zagreb, Aloysius Stepinac, in Zagreb’s cathedral. Aloysius was the leader of Croatia’s Catholics through the Second World War, who closely embraced the Ustashe regime.
After the wars and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia that ripped the region in the closing decade of the last century the Serbs, with some justification, emerged as the true villains, justifiably Mladic, Milosovic, and , Radovan Karadžić have all now been dragged to The Hague. However the role of Croatia in the crimes of the period have largely been forgotten, if Mr Ratinger has his way it will not be the only period in Croation history conveniently buried.
*http://nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm
** Ibid
***Ibid
'Even though petitions against the Catholics and their massacres got sent to Pius XII, not once did Pacelli, the "infallible" Pope, ever show anything but benevolence toward the leaders of the Pavelic regime. His silence on the matter matched his silence about his knowledge of Auschwitz.’ ***
Perhaps the Second World War is all something of ‘ancient history’ for some of my younger readers, however in 2001 I visited Croatia, this just a few years after the break-up of Yugoslavia. During this period I visited Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina. On the road to Mostar we stopped at a little roadside café, and were directed by the guide up to what turned out to be the ruins of a small Muslim village, houses battered by sledgehammers, household belongings scattered and thrown into the mud. The mosque or what remained of it smashed and with the phrase, HA HA HA, written in English upon the wall. Thus a Muslim community that had lasted well over a century was destroyed, one suspects, in a matter of hours. As to its inhabitants what can only shudder to think what may have become of them.
In the Muslim quarter of Mostar itself I cannot imagine that the scale of destruction had been seen in Europe World war two, this including the wreckage of the famous bridge, shelled not for any strategic reasons but out of spite, all committed by the Croatian forces with catholic rosary beads and crosses hanging around their necks.
Given all of this you would think that Mr Ratzinger might have some concerns, perhaps some apologies for past misdemeanours. Not a bit of it, no he acclaims Croatia as a beacon of family values, speaking On Sunday evening, just prior to leaving Croatia, the Pope prayed second vespers – or evening prayers – at the tomb of the former Archbishop of Zagreb, Aloysius Stepinac, in Zagreb’s cathedral. Aloysius was the leader of Croatia’s Catholics through the Second World War, who closely embraced the Ustashe regime.
After the wars and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia that ripped the region in the closing decade of the last century the Serbs, with some justification, emerged as the true villains, justifiably Mladic, Milosovic, and , Radovan Karadžić have all now been dragged to The Hague. However the role of Croatia in the crimes of the period have largely been forgotten, if Mr Ratinger has his way it will not be the only period in Croation history conveniently buried.
*http://nobeliefs.com/ChurchesWWII.htm
** Ibid
***Ibid
