Croatian Roman Catholic cardinal

Aloysius Viktor Cardinal Stepinac (Croatian: Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a senior-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death, a period which included the fascist rule of the Ustaše over the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska or NDH) from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. He was tried by the communist Yugoslav government after the war and convicted of treason and collaboration with the Ustaše regime. The trial was depicted in the West as a typical communist "show trial", and was described by The New York Times as biased against the Archbishop (he didn't become a Cardinal until 1953). However, Professor John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. is of the opinion that the trial was "carried out with proper legal procedure". In a verdict that polarized public opinion both in Yugoslavia and beyond, the Yugoslav authorities found him guilty on the charge of high treason (for collaboration with the fascist Ustaše regime), as well as complicity in the forced conversions of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. 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 p*ed. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but served only five at Lepoglava before being transferred to house arrest with his movements confined to his home parish of Krašić.

In 1952 he was designated for elevation to cardinal by Pope Pius XII. He was unable to participate in the 1958 conclave due to the house arrest to which he had been sentenced. On 10 February 1960, still under confinement in Krašić, Stepinac died of polycythemia and other illnesses he contracted while imprisoned. On 3 October 1998, Pope John Paul II declared him a martyr and beatified him before 500,000 Croatians in Marija Bistrica near Zagreb.

His record during World War II, conviction, and subsequent beatification remain controversial. On 22 July 2016, the Zagreb County Court annulled his post-war conviction due to "gross violations of current and former fundamental principles of substantive and procedural criminal law". Pope Francis invited Serbian prelates to participate in canonization investigations, but in 2017 a joint commission was only able to agree that "n the case of Cardinal Stepinac, the interpretations that were predominantly given by Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs remain divergent".

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Coadjutor archbishop
  • 2.1 Appointment
  • 2.2 Political situation
  • 2.3 Other activities
• 3 Archbishop of Zagreb
• 4 Political and religious views prior to World War II
• 5 World War II
  • 5.1 Invasion and establishment of the Independent State of Croatia
  • 5.2 Relations with the government
  • 5.3 Response to Ustaše atrocities
    • 5.3.1 Racial laws
    • 5.3.2 M* killings and concentration camps
    • 5.3.3 Deportations
    • 5.3.4 Forced conversions
      • 5.3.4.1 Other crimes against the Serbian Orthodox Church
    • 5.3.5 Overall *essments of Stepinac's actions during WWII
• 6 Post-war period
• 7 Trial
  • 7.1 Reactions
  • 7.2 Annulment of the verdict
• 8 Imprisonment
• 9 Cardinalate
• 10 Death and canonisation controversies
• 11 Legacy
  • 11.1 Nominations to Righteous Among the Nations
• 12 Primary sources
• 13 See also
• 14 Notes
• 15 Footnotes
• 16 References
  • 16.1 Books
  • 16.2 Journals
  • 16.3 Websites
• 17 External links

Early life

Alojzije Viktor Stepinac was born in Brezarić, a village in the parish 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 family moved to Krašić in 1906, and Stepinac attended primary school there, then attended high school in Zagreb from 1909 to 1915, boarding at the Archdiocese of Zagreb orphanage. This was followed by study at the lycée of the archdiocese, as he was seriously considering taking holy orders, having sent in his application to the seminary at the age of 16.

He 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.

After the war he enrolled at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb, but left it after only one semester and returned home to help his father in his vineyards. His father wanted him to marry, and in 1923 he was briefly engaged to a teacher, Marija Horvat, but the engagement was broken off. In 1922, Stepinac was part of the politically conservative Catholic Hrvatski orlovi (Croatian Eagles) youth sport organisation, and traveled to the m* games in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He was at the front of the group's ceremonial procession, carrying the Croatian flag.

On 28 October 1924, at the age of 26, Stepinac entered the Collegium Germani* et Hungari* in Rome to study for the priesthood. During his studies there he befriended the future Austrian cardinal Franz König when the two played together on a volleyball team. Granted an American scholarship, he went on to study for doctorates in both theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Along with Croatian, he was fluent in Italian, German and French.

He was ordained on 26 October 1930 by Archbishop Giuseppe Palica, Vicegerent of Rome, in a ceremony which also included the ordination of his eventual successor as Archbishop of Zagreb, Franjo Šeper. On 1 November, he said his first m* at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Stepinac wanted to serve the common people, and wanted to be a parish priest.

He celebrated his first m* in his home parish of Krašić on 1 July 1931, but instead of being appointed to a parish he was appointed as liturgical master of ceremonies to the Archbishop of Zagreb Antun Bauer on 1 October. He also established the archdiocesan branch of the Catholic charity Caritas in December of that year, and initiated and edited the Caritas magazine. He also temporarily administered the parishes of Samobor and Sveti Ivan Zelina. By this time, Stepinac had become a strong Croatian nationalist, but was not active in Catholic Action or the politically conservative Croatian Catholic movement. He was considered "conscientious and devoted to his work".

Coadjutor archbishop

The Black Madonna of Marija Bistrica, to which Stepinac led a pilgrimage soon after his consecration

Appointment

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. Both Pope Pius XI and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia agreed with his appointment, and although the king wanted to withdraw his *ent after he received further information about Stepinac, he was dissuaded by Bauer. According to some sources, Stepinac was the fifth or even eighth candidate to be considered for the role, which brought with it the right to succeed Bauer. Stepinac's decision to join the Yugoslav Legion in 1918 made him a more acceptable candidate to King Alexander.

According to Stepinac's biographer, Friar Šimun Ćorić, Bauer asked Stepinac if he would give his formal consent to being named as Bauer's successor, but after considering the issue for several days, Stepinac refused, saying that he considered himself unfit to be appointed as a bishop. In this version of events, Bauer persisted, and once it was clear that King Alexander had agreed to his appointment, Stepinac consented. Upon his naming, he took In te, Domine, speravi (I place my trust in You, my Lord) as his motto.

At the time of his consecration on 24 June 1934, Stepinac was the youngest bishop in the Catholic Church, and was completely unknown to the Croat people. Two weeks after his consecration, he led a 15,000-strong pilgrimage to the old Marian shrine of the Black Madonna at Marija Bistrica. Stepinac followed this with annual pilgrimages to the site. Bauer delegated many tasks and responsibilities to Stepinac, and he travelled widely within the country.

Political situation

Stepinac's appointment came at a time of acute political turmoil in Yugoslavia. In June 1928, the popular leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS) Stjepan Radić and several other Croatian deputies had been shot by a Serb deputy in the Yugoslav Parliament. Two had died immediately and Radić had suc*bed to his wounds two months later, the incident causing widespread outrage among Croats. In January of the following year, King Alexander had prorogued Parliament and had effectively become a royal dictator.

In April 1933, the new leader of the HSS Vladko Maček had been sent to prison for three years on charges of separatism after he and other opposition figures had issued the Zagreb Points condemning the royal regime and its policies. While Maček was in prison, his deputy Josip Predavec was apparently murdered by the police. When Stepinac wanted to visit Maček in prison to thank him for his well-wishes on Stepinac's appointment as coadjutor bishop, his request was denied.

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".

On 30 July 1934, Stepinac received the French deputy Robert Schuman, whom he told: "There is no justice in Yugoslavia.:... The Catholic Church endures much". Throughout 1934, Stepinac spoke with veteran Croatian politician and de facto head of the HSS Ante Trumbić on several occasions. On his views regarding the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Trumbić recorded that Stepinac had

loyalty to the state as it is, but with the condition that the state acts towards the Catholic Church as it does to all just denominations and that it guarantees them freedom.

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.

On 9 October 1934, King Alexander was **inated in Marseilles by a Bulgarian gunman backed by the Croatian nationalist organisation, the Ustaše. Stepinac, along with Bishops Antun Akšamović, Dionizije Njaradi and Gregorij Rožman, were given special permission by the Papal Nuncio in Belgrade to attend the Serbian Orthodox funeral. Less than a month after the **ination, Stepinac was among those who signed what became known as the "Zagreb Memorandum", which listed a number of demands, including the exoneration of Maček, a general amnesty, freedom of movement and *ociation, restrictions on the activities of government-authorised paramilitaries, and free elections. The key demand of the Memorandum was that the regency that had succeeded the king should address the "Croatian question", the desire of many Croats for self-determination.

Other activities

In 1936, he climbed Mount Triglav, the tallest peak in Yugoslavia. In 2006, the 70th anniversary of his climb was commemorated with a memorial chapel being built near the summit. In July 1937, he led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (then the British Mandate of Palestine). During the pilgrimage, he blessed an altar dedicated to the martyr Nikola Tavelić, who had already been beatified at that time, and was later canonised as a saint. After his return from Palestine, Stepinac began a campaign for the canonisation of Tavelić, and proposed that a monument to him be built in the Velebit mountains overlooking the Adriatic Sea.

Archbishop of Zagreb

The creation of the Banovina of Croatia was Prince Paul's attempt to address the "Croatian question"

On 7 December 1937, Bauer died, and though still below the age of forty, Stepinac succeeded him as Archbishop of Zagreb. Presaging the Ustaše reign of terror during World War II, Stepinac addressed a group of university students during Lent in 1938, saying,

Love for one's own nation must not turn a man into a wild animal, which destroys everything and calls for reprisal, but it must enrich him, so that his own nation respects and loves other nations.

In 1938, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia held its last election before the outbreak of war. Stepinac voted for Maček's opposition list, while Radio Belgrade spread the false information that he had voted for Milan Stojadinović's Yugoslav Radical Union. In the latter half of 1938, Stepinac had an operation for acute appendicitis.

In 1940, Stepinac received the regent Prince Paul at St. Mark's Church as he arrived in Zagreb to garner support for the 1939 Cvetković–Maček Agreement, which had created the autonomous Banovina of Croatia within Yugoslavia. The Agreement was intended to address the "Croatian question", but did not satisfy those demanding full independence. Pope Pius XII declared the period from 29 June 1940 to 29 June 1941 as a jubilee year to celebrate 1300 years of Christianity among the Croats. In 1940, the Franciscan Order celebrated 700 years in Croatia and the order's Minister General Leonardo Bello came to Zagreb for the event. During his visit, Stepinac joined the Third Order of Saint Francis, on 29 September 1940. After the death of Bauer, Stepinac attempted to remain aloof from politics, and tried to unify Croatian Catholic organisations and subordinate them directly to his authority. He was unable to achieve this, probably because he was young and relatively inexperienced, and did not command the level of respect and authority usually accorded an Archbishop of Zagreb.

The historian Mark Biondich observes that the Catholic Church had historically been on the fringes of Croatian m* politics and public life, and that the influence of the Church had been further eroded during the interwar period due to the royal dictatorship and the popularity of the anti-clerical HSS.

Political and religious views prior to World War II

Zagreb Cathedral

During his period as coadjutor archbishop and as Archbishop of Zagreb up to the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Stepinac made his views clear on a number of political and religious issues. Foremost among these statements were those regarding Protestantism, Eastern orthodoxy, communism and Freemasonry.

Stepinac criticized Protestantism, stating in a speech in 1938 that "the Catholic Church was the greatest civilising force in human history", and railed against those that wanted to deprive the Catholic Church of any influence in public life. He referred to the Reformation as the "Deformation", and denounced Luther as a false prophet who "demolished the principles of legal authority given by the Lord". He went on to blame Protestantism for the "hell in which human society suffers today", and said that it had opened the road to "anarchy in all forms of human life." Stepinac was also highly critical of Eastern Orthodoxy, seeing it as a serious danger to both the Catholic Church and Croats in general. The day after the Yugoslav coup d'état of 27 March 1941, carried out by British-supported Serb officers against a pact with the Axis powers, he wrote in his diary:

All in all, Croats and Serbs are two worlds, the north and south poles, which will never become close except by a miracle of God. The schism is the greatest curse of Europe, almost greater than Protestantism. In it there is no morality, no principle, no truth, no justice, no honesty.

On the same day he issued an encyclical to his clergy, calling on them to pray for the young king, and that Croatia and Yugoslavia would be "spared the horrors of war". This was consistent with long-standing practice of the Catholic Church to show loyalty to the state and its leadership.

Stepinac was well aware of the fact that an estimated 200,000 mostly Croatian Catholics had converted to the Serbian Orthodox Church in the interwar period. He later claimed that Catholics were forced to convert to Orthodoxy during the period between the wars, but according to the historian Jozo Tomasevich, the principal reason for their conversions was the pro-Serb public policy in the Serb-dominated Yugoslav state meant that it was advantageous both politically and for career prospects to be a member of the dominant religion. Tomasevich also notes that despite the fact that it was the national church of the dominant nation in the country, the Serb Orthodox Church felt threatened by Rome, particularly in Bosnia where the Catholic Church was extremely dynamic - in just one diocese, encomp*ing half of Bosnia's Catholics, it created 17 new parishes in the interwar period. Tomasevich cites Vladko Maček, the leading prewar Croatian opposition leader, who when attacked by an Ustaše priest, for failing to state in his autobiography that the Catholic Church was persecuted in prewar Yugoslavia, Maček responded: "I could not write about the persecution of the Catholic Church because to the best of my knowledge such persecution did not exist." Yet, 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.

The political scientist Sabrina P. Ramet has detailed a range of anti-Catholic aspects to the interwar Yugoslav state, including that King Alexander tried to regulate the religious life of the state, entrenching discrimination against adherents of religious groups other than the Serbian Orthodox Church, and trying to erode their influence by allowing Orthodox proselytising in Catholic areas. Yet Stella Alexander states that both the Catholic and Orthodox churches proselytized in interwar years, with the Catholic Church doing so more openly and aggressively than the Orthodox, especially in Bosnia Hercegovina which had a mixed Catholic, Muslim and Orthodox population. The press was used to accuse the Catholic Church of being pro-fascist, despite the Yugoslav government itself having fascist traits at the time. The government promoted the Old Catholic Church, a rival organisation which has been established when some Catholics refused to accept the doctrine of papal infallibility after the First Vatican Council. 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. The Croatian theologian Roko Rogošić claimed that 100,000 Roman Catholics had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy under pressure from the Yugoslav government and the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1935 alone. However, demographic data contradict these claims, showing for example a slight increase in number of Catholic Croats compared to Orthodox Serbs in Croatia in interwar years.

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 They adopted a Greater Croatia ideology, which envisaged Croatia expanding its borders to claim Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bačka. 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". In the Spanish Civil War they sided with Franco, Italy and Germany, because "they do not tolerate Jews or communists or insidious, dangerous Freemasonry." Katolički list, the official newspaper of Stepinac's archdiocese, proclaimed: “Jews are the main enemies of humanity. They are the true curse of the human race." On the domestic front, Catholic newspapers especially attacked the politics of the Croatian Peasants Party and Vladko Maček in particular. In the late 1930s a significant segment of the Croatian Catholic movement attacked the Croatian Peasant Party's commitment to democracy, pacifism and negotiation, and instead moved toward independence and authoritarianism, with prominent Catholic intellectuals joining the Ustaše before WWII. After 1941, these Catholic activists - men like Ivo Guberina, Milivoj Magdić, Ivan Oršanić, Ivo Bogdan and others - became leading Ustaše propagandists and apologists, some served as officials in the Ustaše regime. Thus a leader of the Crusaders, Ivan Oršanić, first led the State Secretariat for Propaganda in the NDH, then became the leader of the Ustaše Youth, reporting directly to Pavelić.

In 1937 Archbishop Stepinac founded the Committee for Refugee *istance in Zagreb, which extensively helped the Jews fleeing from National Socialist German Workers' Party 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 National Socialist German Workers' Partys as „pagans“, and always held a reserved at*ude, in any contact with German representatives. Gestapo in Zagreb reported that Stepinac held a clear antipathy against National Socialist German Workers' Partysm, and made numerous acts to help prosecuted Jews 1941–1945.

In 1940, Stepinac had told Prince Paul:

The most ideal thing would be for the Serbs to return to the faith of their fathers, that is, to bow the head before Christ's representative, the Holy Father. Then we could at last breathe in this part of Europe, for Byzantinism has played a frightful role in the history of this part of the world.

Of all the threats he perceived to the Croatian people and the Catholic Church, Stepinac railed most against the dangers of communism. In August 1940, in response to the recent establishment of diplomatic relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, Stepinac sermonised that there could be no co-operation between the Church and communists, stated that the Church was not afraid of communists, and that communists would make Croatia "a nation of killers and robbers, debauchees, and thieves".

Stepinac was particularly obsessed with Freemasonry, which was closely *ociated with support for the unification of Yugoslavia and opposed what it considered the Catholic Church's "authoritarianism and anti-liberal ideology." In 1934 Stepinac wrote in his diary: "In Yugoslavia, today, Freemasonry rules. Unfortunately, in the heart of the Croatian nation also, in Zagreb, this hellish society has entrenched itself, a lair of immorality, corruption, and all kinds of dishonesty, the sworn enemy of the Catholic Church and therefore also of the Croatian nation. Without the knowledge and approval of the Freemasons, nobody can be appointed to any influential position. It is no joke to join battle with it, but it must be done in the interests of the church, the Croatian people, and even the state of Yugoslavia if it wants to continue to exist, because the violence that rules today is supported by Freemasonry."

Tomasevich notes that such vehement sentiments against Freemasonry were was not unusual among conservative senior churchmen prior to the Second Vatican Council. Tomasevich further observes that despite papal encyclicals against both Italian fascist abuses against Catholic Youth organizations in 1931 and German National Socialist German Workers' Partysm in 1937, Stepinac refrained from condemning or even mentioning Fascism or National Socialist German Workers' Partysm, pointing out that in 1938 the Catholic Church was supporting the Italian and German allies of Franco Spanish Civil War, and public criticism of their political ideologies would not have been helpful. Finally, Tomasevich stresses that the Vatican saw Germany as the most important opponent of communism. Nevertheless, Stepinac was a member of the Yugoslav Catholic Bishops' Conference that issued warnings against both National Socialist German Workers' Partysm and Communism after the 1937 papal encyclical against National Socialist German Workers' Partys ideology. Stepinac feared both National Socialist German Workers' Partysm 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 , there will be appalling terror and the destruction of little nations. If England wins, the masons, Jews will remain in power:... If the USSR wins, then the devil will have authority over both the world and hell.

West describes Stepinac as a "puritanical zealot", who gathered together those opposing communism, liberalism, secular education, divorce reform, profanity, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, and birth control, under the umbrella of the Croatian Catholic movement. Stepinac even railed against "mixed sunbathing and swimming". West also observes that by 1934, Stepinac had developed into an

ardent, almost obsessive, Croatian nationalist whose bigotry was softened only by his piety and a measure of human kindness.

According to the journalist Marcus Tanner, by the time he became coadjutor bishop, Stepinac had become a determined opponent of the Serb-centric approach of the Yugoslav government, and by the time he became archbishop he was a strong supporter of the HSS, making it clear that he had voted for Maček in the 1938 elections.

Stella Alexander wrote of Stepinac's political outlook:

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. But his political short-sightedness limited his grasp of the apocalyptic events of 1941 to the immediate future of Croatia and the Catholic Church in Croatia, and this left him open to the charge of complicity in the terrible crimes of the ustaše. The same blinkered outlook kept him from establishing some kind of modus Vivendi with the new government immediately after the war.

World War II

After the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia declared its neutrality, and the United Kingdom worked hard to help Yugoslavia maintain its stance. In the face of steadily mounting pressure from Germany and Italy, by March 1941 Yugoslavia had been completely surrounded by members of the Axis. In this situation, some senior government figures were advocating for Yugoslavia to also join the Tripar*e Pact.

After a number of delays, Prince Paul and Prime Minister Cvetković signed the Pact on 25 March, but the following day there were demonstrations in Belgrade, with protesters chanting "Better the grave than a slave, better a war than the pact". In the early hours of 27 March a bloodless military coup d'état was executed. In the wake of the coup, the new government refused to ratify Yugoslavia's signing of the Tripar*e Pact, but did not openly rule it out. The coup found little support with the Croatian population, and on the day after the invasion commenced Maček resigned from the government and returned to Zagreb in anticipation of unrest.

Invasion and establishment of the Independent State of Croatia

Archbishop Stepinac greeting the fascist Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić

Hitler was furious when he learned of the coup, and later on 27 March 1941 he ordered the invasion of Yugoslavia. Commencing on 6 April, a German-led Axis invasion force began its *ault from multiple directions, quickly overcoming the limited resistance. During the fighting, several Croat units mutinied and others performed poorly or defected. On 10 April 1941, with the *istance of the Germans, the senior Ustaše figure in the country, Slavko Kvaternik, proclaimed the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH). German tanks entered Zagreb later that same day and were greeted by cheering crowds.

Before the war the Ustaše were a fascist, ultranationalist, racist and terrorist organization, fighting for an independent Croatia. Ustaše terrorists set off bombs on international trains bound for Yugoslavia, and were convicted in the 1934 **ination of the Yugoslav King and French foreign Minister in Marseilles. Ante Pavelić, Kvaternik and other Ustaše leaders were sentenced to death in absentia by French courts, as the true **ination ringleaders. The Ustaše "17 Principles" proclaimed that those who were not "of Croat blood" (i.e. Serbs and Jews), will not have any political role in the future Croat state. In his 1936 tract, "The Croat Question", the Ustaše leader, Pavelić, spouted anti-Serb and anti-Semitic hatred, calling Jews the enemy of the Croat people.

On 12 April, Stepinac visited Kvaternik and pledged his loyalty to the NDH. The following day, when the Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić arrived in Zagreb, Stepinac did not participate in the welcome, but he did visit Pavelić on 16 April. These meetings and a radio broadcast all occurred prior to the capitulation of the Yugoslav armed forces on 17 April. That evening, Stepinac hosted a dinner party for Pavelić and the leading Ustaše. On 27 April, Stepinac recorded in his diary that Pavelić *ured him he will act per the Catholic Church's desires, and that Pavelić stated he will “exterminate” the Old Catholic Church (which rejects Papal authority) and will not be tolerant of the Serbian Orthodox Church, because it was not the Church for him, but a political organization. Based on this Stepinac concluded in his diary that Pavelic is "a sincere Catholic and that the Church would enjoy freedom to carry out its work", although he recognised that difficulties lay ahead. On the same day, the official Croatian Catholic newspaper Nedelja praised both Pavelić and Hitler, saying:

God, who directs the destiny of nations and controls the hearts of kings, has given us Ante Pavelić and moved the leader of friendly and allied people, Adolf Hitler, to use his victorious troops to disperse our oppressors and enable us to create an Independent State of Croatia. Glory be to God, our gra*ude to Adolf Hitler, and infinite loyalty to our Poglavnik, Ante Pavelić.

Immediately the Ustaše implemented draconian decrees specifying death as the sole penalty for those who attempt to act against the regime (April 17), opened the first concentration camp (April 15), and initiated the persecution of Jews and Serbs. Aware the Ustaše were preparing National Socialist German Workers' Party-style Race Laws, on April 23 Stepinac wrote Ustaše interior minister Andrija Artkuković a letter, in which Stepinac calls the Race Laws "necessary", and only asks that Jewish converts to Catholicism be exempted. Five days later, on 28 April, Stepinac issued a "rapturous" encyclical to his diocese regarding the creation of the "young Croatian state", which included the words:

Our people has come face to face with its age-old and ardently desired dream. The times are such that it is no longer the tongue which speaks but the blood with its mysterious links with the country, in which we have seen the light of God, and with its people from whom we spring. Do we need to say that the blood flows more quickly in our veins, that the hearts in our breasts beat faster?:... It is easy to see God's hand at work here.

Stepinac urged the clergy of his archdiocese to fulfill their duty to the new Croatian state and pray that the head of state, i.e. the Ustashe leader Pavelić,

may have the spirit and wisdom in order to fulfill noble and responsible office for the glory of God and the salvation of the people in truth and justice.

Stepinac's letter captured what was a common sentiment among Croatian nationalists and much of the Catholic Church in the new state. Considering the marginal role of the Church in the political arena during the interwar period, the creation of the NDH appeared to offer the Church and the Croatian Catholic movement an opportunity. The leaders of the new state appeared willing to work with Church leaders, and thus reduce the marginalisation the Church had been subject to under the Yugoslav state.

Stepinac's immediate visits to Kvaternik and Pavelić, and his diocesan letter all *isted the Ustaše in consolidating their control of the new state, and enhanced its credibility with the Croatian people. Cornwell notes that this letter was issued on the same day that nearly 200 Serbs were m*acred by the Ustaše near Bjelovar. Even prior to Stepinac's letter, Ustaše and Volksdeutche had already destroyed the Osijek synagogue (14 April), and on 17 April Pavelić had issued the Decree on the Protection of the Nation and the State, the first of the acts that placed Serbs, Jews and Roma outside the law, leading to their persecution and destruction. The Ustaše had opened and started filling their first concentration camp (15 April), and had ins*uted additional discriminatory edicts against Jews and Serbs (14, 19, 22 and 25 April). Stepinac already knew of the planned racial laws, which Pavelić signed only 2 days after Stepinac issued his letter praising Pavelić and the Ustaše state.

On 30 April 1941, Pavelić signed the main race laws - the Legal Decree on Racial Origins, and the Legal Decree on the Protection of Aryan Blood and the Honor of the Croatian People. In a letter to the Pope from May 16, Stepinac wrote that the race laws were meant to appease the National Socialist German Workers' Partys, and concludes that "it was a much lesser evil that the Croats p*ed this law rather than that the Germans took all power into their own hands". In a May 14 letter to the Pope, when he knew of the slaughter of 260 Orthodox Serbs held in the Glina Church, Stepinac praised Ustaše efforts to turn Croatia into a "Catholic country", and praised Pavelić in particular, noting he will "liquidate" (eliminate) Orthodox Serbs from Croatia:

Completely honestly, I notice that in the circles of power there is the utmost desire to turn Croatia into a Catholic country. The Minister of War absolutely guaranteed me: either Croatia will be a Catholic country, or let it disappear…The desire of those who currently rule Croatia to implement the teachings of the Catholic Church obliges us to help and support them with all the loyalty and strength we have." Stepinac added: "Pavelić is a true Catholic practicing believer, and he wants to create, despite huge obstacles, a Catholic state in Croatia:... I believe that if the Poglavnik, Pavelić, were head of government for 20 years, the schismatics would be completely liquidated (eliminated) from Croatia." Referencing National Socialist German Workers' Party plans to expel 260,000 Slovenes, Stepinac wrote: "Earlier asked me what I thought if he decided to ask the German authorities to change the fate of Slovenes and transfer them as Catholics to Croatia, among Catholics, and transfer the same number of schismatic Serbs from Croatia to Macedonia. I replied to that such a solution would be better for the unfortunate Slovenes"

Croatian historian, Hrvoje Klasić, notes Stepinac supported actions that today's courts would cl*ify as ethnic cleansing of Serbs. In May 1941 Pavelić visited the Pope. Phayer writes that Stepinac arranged the audience with Pius XII, and "recommended the dictator to the Holy See". Ester Gitman writes that "Stepinac chose not to join Pavelić" and that he was given a private audience with the Pope. Pavelić put pressure on Archbishop Stepinac to write to Pope Pius XII, via Cardinal Maglione, to request official recognition of the Independent State of Croatia. The answer came back in July - in accordance with long-standing tradition during wartime, no Vatican recognition of the NDH was forthcoming. But the Pope did send Abbot Giuseppe Marcone as apostolic visitor, who acted as papal nuncio, which satisfied Stepinac, since he felt "the Vatican had de facto recognized the new state".

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 p*ed 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 p*ed this law than if the Germans had taken all power into their own hands.

Pavelić met Hitler for the first time on 7 June 1941, and told him that many younger clergy were supportive of the Ustaše regime, but mentioned that Stepinac had advised him that he could only rule if he was "as forebearing as possible". Biondich notes that Stepinac was unhappy that many younger priests were overtly supporting the Ustaše. On 26 June 1941, Stepinac met with the Archbishop of Vrhbosna and the bishops of Belgrade, Banja Luka, Split, Hvar, Šibenik and Senj-Modruš. The Bishop of Mostar sent a friar to the meeting. The group decided to go to Pavelić to express their devotion and trust. At the reception with Pavelić, Stepinac stated that "love of religion and country spring only from God", then promised Pavelić their loyalty and co-operation.

Despite initially welcoming the Independent State of Croatia, Stepinac subsequently condemned the National Socialist German Workers' Party-aligned state's atrocities against Jews and Serbs. He objected to the persecution of Jews and National Socialist German Workers' Party laws, helped Jews and others to escape and criticized Ustaše atrocities in front of Zagreb Cathedral in 1943. Despite this, Stepinac never broke with the Ustaše regime and continued to attend public gatherings at their side. After the invasion and Italian annexation of much of the Dalmatian coast, the ecclesiastical province of the Zagreb archbishopric included the Archdiocese of Zagreb, as well as the dioceses of Đakovo and Senj-Modruš, and the Greek Catholic Bishopric of Križevci. Stepinac had very limited formal authority over the suffragan bishops of his province, being more of a "first among equals" than a superior. Biondich states that Stepinac did not have the power to dictate policy or control the behaviour of the Sarajevo-based Archbishop of Vrhbosna, Ivan Šarić, or the other bishops in the NDH. Yet Goldstein notes that Stepinac communicated with Sarajevo Archbishop Ivan Šarić, but apparently never even privately condemned his public support for the Ustaše genocides, unlike the Croatian Peasant Party members in London who vehemently condemned Šarić.

By the end of Summer 1941, Ante Pavelić publicly blamed the irregular "Wild Ustashe" (some 25,000-30,000 of them, including many criminal elements) for all the atrocities performed by the Ustashe in the previous months. The state authorities never paid members of "Wild Ustashe", nor acknowledged them to be in the military service, though government-controlled press and Ustashe officials in former months clearly encouraged those aggressive but undisciplined groups to go against the "enemy elements", as the regime needed the manpower to execute ethnic cleansing and genocide within the NDH. Some members of that irregular part of the Ustashe Militia were arrested, tried and executed for the crimes against Serbs and Gypsies. This was done to convey a message to the rest of the "Wild Ustashe" to become part of the Ustashe hierarchy through regimentation. Persecution against Serbs, Jews and Roma persisted, however.

Relations with the government

The historian, Jozo Tomasevich, states that the NDH regime unleashed genocidal policies against Jews, Serbs and Roma, while also subjecting Croats to the greatest repression they experienced in their history. According to John Fine, Stepinac enjoyed close *ociations with the Ustaše leaders, as he was the archbishop of the capital. During the war Stepinac personally celebrated Te Deums on the anniversary of the founding of the NDH, including on April 10., 1945. Stepinac served as the military Vicar of the NDH army throughout the war. He appeared in photographs numerous times in Ustaše newspapers, alongside Pavelić and other Ustaše leaders. Although he later sought to distance himself from the Ustaše, especially when it became clear the Axis powers and the Ustaše would lose the war, Stepinac and the hierarchy of Catholic Church in Croatia nevertheless continued to publicly support the Ustaše regime until the very end.

In mid-May 1941, Maglione was already noting that Stepinac and other bishops were treading cautiously with the NDH authorities to avoid "compromising themselves" with the Ustaše leadership. In July 1941, no Te Deum was sung at the Zagreb Cathedral in celebration of Pavelić's birthday, which contributed to tension between Stepinac and the Ustaše leader. Yet that same month, at the end of the first NDH Bishop's conference, the bishops were received by Pavelić. Stepinac personally greeted Pavelić and stated that the bishops were visiting him "as the legitimate representatives of the Church of God in the NDH, with the promise of sincere and loyal cooperation for a better future of our:homeland". In October 1941, shortly after the Ustaše destroyed the main synagogue in Zagreb, Stepinac preached a sermon in which he said,

"A House of God, of whatever religion, is a holy place. Whoever touches such a place will pay with his life. An attack on a House of God of any religion cons*utes an attack on all religious communities." (Ivo Goldstein notes that claims that Stepinac said this come from a single individual, and are not confirmed by any other source, despite the fact Stepinac supposedly made the speech in the Zagreb cathedral. Goldstein also notes it's contrary to the rather gentler criticism of Ustaše race laws in well-do*ented, private-only communications at that time)

In November 1941, Stepinac chaired a bishop's conference, during which he heard reports from various bishops within the NDH. What he heard made his enthusiasm wane for the new Croatian state. On 20 November he wrote to Pavelić including some of the reports he had received. He stated that he believed that the worst of the atrocities were over, and that he believed they were the work of individuals. Yet contrary to Stepinac blaming individuals, historians state the Ustaše regime carried out systematic genocidal policies against Jews, Serbs and Roma. The letter did challenge Pavelić, stating that "no-one can deny that these terrible acts of violence and cruelty have been taking place", pointing out that Pavelić himself had condemned the atrocities committed by the Ustaše. He said, "The Croatian nation has been proud of its 1000-year-old culture and Christian tradition. That is why we wait for it to show in practice, now that it has achieved its freedom, a greater nobility and humanity than that displayed by its former rulers". Tomasevich notes that Stepinac never made this letter public, e.g. in the form of a pastoral letter, which could have had a beneficial effect on restraining Ustaše crimes. In fact Tomasevich writes that neither Stepinac, nor anyone else in the Church hierarchy ever uttered one word of public protest against Ustaše crimes against Serbs, by far the most numerous victims of NDH genocidal policies.

In December 1941, Pavelić met with the Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, and told him that the lower levels of Catholic clergy displayed a very positive at*ude towards the Ustaše regime, but that some of the bishops were openly hostile to the government. Also in December, Stepinac declared membership in Catholic Action and in the Ustaše to be incompatible. Cornwell states that Stepinac was "wholly in accord with the general goals of the new Croatian state". Tomasevich states that the Catholic Church fully supported Ustaše policies, and failed to publicly condemn crimes against Serbs. Many priests and well-known Catholic laymen openly sided with the Ustaše, *umed responsible positions in the NDH, while the Catholic press praised the Pavelić regime. On more than one occasion, the archbishop proclaimed his support for the Independent State of Croatia and welcomed the demise of Yugoslavia On 10 April each year during the war he celebrated a m* to celebrate proclamation of the NDH. In June 1945 the Papal legate to the NDH, Marcone, related to a British officer in Zagreb that the Croatian Catholic Church during the war “tended to identify itself too closely with the Ustaše“, because (1) many Croat priests were p*ionate believers in Croatia's independence, thus they were tempted to turn a blind eye on Ustaše atrocities, and (2) they were drawn to leading Ustaše because they were devout Catholics, including the worst criminals like Pavelić, Rukavina and Luburić.

In May, 1943, Stepinac sent a report to the Papal secretary of state, on the at*ude of the Catholic Church in Croatia towards the Ustaše regime. Responding to criticisms that the Church had not done enough to oppose Ustaše crimes, Stepinac enumerated the main benefits the Church received from the Ustaše regime: it fights abortion, which Stepinac claimed is mainly performed by Jewish and Serb doctors, and has banned adult movieography, according to Stepinac, published by Jews and Serbs; that it abolished Freemasonry and vigorously fought against communism, that it issued decrees against swearing. The Ustaše government ensured the Christian education of NDH soldiers; insisted on religious education in schools; that it increased financial aid to Catholic religious ins*utions, increased the salaries of the clergy, supported the Church's charitable activities, financially supported the construction of new and the repair of existing churches. According to Stepinac, all these were indicators of the Ustaše regime's goodwill towards the Catholic Church, and “as the Archbishop's report makes clear, the Church reciprocated in kind.”

In the same letter Stepinac described Yugoslav government-in-exile complaints against the Ustaše regime as "enemy propaganda" aimed at bringing the NDH into disrepute in the eyes of the Vatican. He admitted that atrocities had been committed against Serbs by irresponsible people without the sanction of the NDH authorities, and claimed that many of those responsible had been executed by the government. He deplored and condemned the atrocities, but stated that they were a reaction to Serb behavior during the interwar period during which, he claimed, Serbs had violated all the rights of the Croatian people. He also reminded the Cardinal of the **ination of the Croatian deputies in the Parliament in 1928. Tomasevich notes the Ustaše also sought to justify, what they regularly referred to as “some excesses” by individual Ustaše and “wild Ustaše”, by invoking prewar repressive acts by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav regime. However, contrary to Stepinac's views, Tomasevich writes that “the wartime Ustaše policies against the Serbs were of a genocidal nature and totally out of proportion to earlier anti-Croatian measures, both in nature and extent”. Furthermore, the Ustaše regime also carried genocides against Jews and Roma, in NDH state-run concentration camps.

Pavelić attended services at Zagreb Cathedral only once in the four years he was in power, and Stepinac did not greet him at the entrance on that occasion. Stepinac lost control of the Archdiocese's publication Katolički List under the new regime. In 1942, officials from Hungary lobbied to ecclesiastically attach Hungarian-occupied Međimurje to a diocese in Hungary. Stepinac opposed this and received guarantees from the Holy See that diocesan boundaries would not change during the war. On 26 October 1943, the Germans killed the archbishop's brother Mijo.

According to Tanner, Stepinac remained naive about politics and the nature of the Ustaše regime. In 1943, Stepinac travelled to the Vatican and came into contact with the Croatian artist Ivan Meštrović. According to Meštrović, Stepinac asked him whether he thought Pavelić knew about the killings of Serbs. When Meštrović replied that Pavelić must know everything, Stepinac went pale and burst into tears.

The historian Martin Gilbert wrote that despite initially welcoming the Independent State of Croatia, Stepinac later "condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and himself saved a group of Jews in an old age home". According to West, Stepinac and the entire Catholic Church remained loyal to Pavelić and the NDH. West states that Stepinac was one of the priests and father-confessors to senior Ustaše such as Pavelić, Budak, Kvaternik and Artuković.

Stepinac (far right) with two Catholic priests at the funeral of President of the Croatian Parliament Marko Došen in September 1944

In 1944, the NDH Ministry for Justice and Religion proposed, and Stepinac accepted the Order of Merit medal from Pavelić, for "having as archbishop unmasked inside and outside the country the opponents of the Independent State of Croatia"

The Catholic Church in the NDH then began to criticise actions taken by the government, and attempted to distance itself to some extent from the authorities. It had no real alternative, given that the likely alternate governments were led by Serb-chauvinist Chetniks or communists. By that time the Ustaše had long lost the support of the great majority of the Croatian people, and most members of the main Croatian prewar party, the Croatian Peasant Party, were supporting the Partisans. Contrary to this, the Church maintained its support of the NDH government to the bitter end. This is demonstrated by the pastoral letter issued after the episcopal conference of 24 March 1945, in which the Croatian Catholic Church maintained its formal support for the puppet state and its rulers, despite the fact that most senior regime figures were preparing to flee the country. The Episcopal Conference was convened at the urging of the Ustaše government, who also had a hand in drafting the letter, issued after the formation of the new, unified Yugoslav government, which had already been recognized by the Allies. According to a later British representative in Zagreb, the papal legate Marcone stated that if he had known of the Bishops' letter of support for the NDH, he would have done everything to prevent its publication (during the war the Vatican recognized the Yugoslav government in exile, and postwar recognized the new Yugoslav government). The Catholic press in the NDH also maintained its support of Pavelić right to the end.

Ivo Goldstein notes Stepinac's protests against Ustaše crimes, yet states that Stepinac's biggest failure was his public support for the criminal NDH, from its first dayt to its last - he celebrated the coming of the Ustaše to power, held Te Deums on the anniversaries of the NDH (even on April 10, 1945), on numerous occasions he was photographed with Pavelić and other Ustaše officials, all of which provided legitimacy to Ustaše regime, allowing it to maintain power and commit crimes. The Ustaše ignored Stepinac's private criticisms, while only a relatively small number of people heard his few public criticisms. On the other hand, countless people saw and read about Stepinac's public support for the NDH. Furthermore, Stepinac expressed much of his criticisms only after the Ustaše had already committed most of their genocidal crimes.

Biondich concludes that claims that Stepinac was an Ustaše sympathiser, and even the spiritual leader of the regime are unfounded. He further states that while Stepinac supported independence, he "began privately to distance himself from the regime within weeks, and certainly within months of the Croatian state's formation." He also observes that while Stepinac continued to attend to his ceremonial duties at official state events, he was privately raising his concerns with the Ustaše leaders. However Biondich also states that Stepinac was not the outspoken critic of the Ustaše regime that many of his defenders claim.

On the other hand, historian Robert McCormick states, "for all the Archbishop's hand wringing, he continued to be a tacit participant in the Independent State of Croatia (ISC). He repeatedly appeared in public with the Poglavnik (the Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić), and issued Te Deum's on the anniversary of the NDH's creation. His failure to publicly denounce the Ustaše's atrocities in the name of the NDH, was tantamount to accepting Pavelić's policies".

On 10 April 1945, Stepinac held a m* in the Zagreb Cathedral for the 4th anniversary of the NDH's founding, and Te Deum's were sung for what was left of the Ustaše state. Richard West writes that, on 15 April, as Pavelić and other Ustaše leaders were getting ready to flee, "Archbishop Stepinac devoted his sermon to what he believed was Croatia's worst sin, not m* murder, but swearing."

Response to Ustaše atrocities

The atrocities committed by the Ustaše can be categorised into four broad areas, all of which fell largely on the Serb population of the NDH; racial laws, m* killings and concentration camps, deportations, and forced conversions to Catholicism.

Racial laws

On 23 April 1941, Stepinac wrote to the Ustaše Interior Minister, Artuković, "on the occasion of the announced p*age of anti-Jewish laws", to caution of "good Catholics who are of the Jewish race and who have converted from the Jewish religion:... I consider that it would be necessary, in p*ing the necessary laws, to take converts of this kind into account." Historian Ivo Goldstein notes that Stepinac not only did not protest against the adoption of racial laws, he called them "necessary", and only asked that Jewish converts to Catholicism be exempted. 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 p*ed this law rather than that the Germans took all power into their own hands".

Stepinac again wrote to Artuković on 22 May to protest the race laws and their application to converted Jews, telling him that members of other races should not be discriminated against "through no fault of their own." He wrote, "We:... appeal to you to issue regulations so that even in the framework of antisemitic legislation, and similar legislation concerning Serbs, the principles of human dignity be preserved." Stepinac added: "Everyone will certainly approve the attempt for the economy to be in national hands, not to allow a non-national and anti-national element to am* capital, or foreign elements to decide about the State and the people. But to take away any possibility of existence from members of other peoples or other races, and to brand them with the stamp of shame, this is an issue of humanity and a question of morality".

As Goldstein notes, Stepinac seemingly argued for "humane" race laws. On 24 May 1942, Stepinac condemned racial persecution in general terms, although he did not mention Serbs. He stated in a diocesan letter:

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 cl*, 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, 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.

In response to criticisms by the Yugoslav government in exile, that the Church had not done enough to counter Ustaše crimes, in May 1943 Stepinac wrote a letter to the Papal secretary in which he acknowledged the crimes, yet praised the Ustaše, among other reasons, for fighting abortion and adult movieography, with Stepinac blaming Jews and Serbs for both.

In his homily of 31 October 1943, which some claim is his most resolute critique of the Ustaše, Stepinac first inveighed against abortion, the "pagan fashions of today's female world" and "all the licentiousness:... that has been observed:... at sea beaches and other bathing spots". He blames these "sins" for the fact that "God like thunder today brings down not just cities and villages, but entire peoples". The speech's primary theme is the defense of the Church's actions, against those who "accuse us of not having arisen in timely or appropriate fashion against the crimes in parts of our homeland". Stepinac states that "the Church cannot force others to behave according to God's laws" and cannot be responsible for "the hotheads in its own priestly ranks". He proclaims it was not the Church that "created in the souls of people the dissatisfaction and insatiability which has produced such sad consequences", instead he blames "certain circles, organizations, and members of other national groups", which some sources state is a reference to Serbs and perhaps Jews.

Stepinac then criticizes Communism, its denial of private property rights, its approval of divorce, negation of God, refusal to allow religious education in schools, etc. Finally at the end of the homily he states: "The Catholic Church does not know races that lord over others, or slave races. The Catholic Church knows only races and peoples as the creatures of God, and if it values some more, it is those of noble heart, and not of stronger fist. For her, a king in the royal palace is a man, in the same way as the last pauper and gypsy under a tent:... The system of shooting hundreds of hostages for a crime in which no culprit can be found is a pagan system that never yielded a good fruit".

In this speech Stepinac condemns "all the wrongdoing, all the killing of the innocent, all the burning of villages". Much of his public criticism was spoken after most of the genocides were already completed, and it became clear the National Socialist German Workers' Partys and Ustaše would lose. These belated speeches were made before limited audiences, unlike his pastoral letter, condemning the Communists, that he ordered read from all the pulpits across Croatia, only 4 months after the Communists seized power. In a letter to the Vatican of May 1943, Stepinac still praised the Ustaše for the "good things" they had done, including the "strict ban on all adult movieographic publications, which were first and foremost published by Jews and Orthodox!".

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 a