YUGOSLAVIA: Archbishop Behind Bars

Marshal Tito struck directly at the only organized force left in Yugoslavia with the power to criticize his dictatorship. Into jail he clapped grave, ascetic Dr. Aloysius Stepinac, 48, Roman Catholic Primate of Yugoslavia, and twelve Catholic priests. The charge: crimes against the people.

Archbishop Stepinac was born (1898) into a Croat peasant family of eleven children. In 1916, he served in the Austrian Army on the Italian front. He was captured, but was later allowed to join the Serbian Army. In 1924 he went to Rome to study for the priesthood. Four years after his ordination, King Alexander unexpectedly approved him as successor to the Archbishop. He took office in 1937. No sycophant, the new Archbishop repeatedly urged his royal benefactor to abolish the royal dictatorship. Later, Archbishop Stepinac lashed out at the Nazi “master race” idea and condemned the execution of hostages as “inhuman and anti-Christian.”

He was just as fearless in condemning Communist outrages. In 1945, the Archbishop wrote in a pastoral letter: “The enemies of the Catholic Church … the followers of the materialistic communism . . . have in our Croatia exterminated with fire and sword priests and the more eminent of the faithful. . . . The number of dead priests is 243; 169 are in prison. We admit that some priests, blinded by national or party passion, sinned . . . in a way for which they must render account to lay courts. . . . We do not intend to defend the guilty . . . but . . .”

Cried Tito: “I do not wish this to be considered a threat, but . . . there exists a law which forbids chauvinism and dissension. . . .”

“Martyr Complex.” A month later Stepinac again criticized Tito’s systematic efforts to discredit and disrupt the Catholic Church. He was jailed for 17 days, then summoned to Tito’s presence. Said the Marshal of the Archbishop: “I consider that he suffers from a martyr complex.”

Tito decided to provide martyrdom. For the Archbishop had become the only spokesman for Yugoslavs, rendered voiceless and helpless by the OZNA (Tito’s secret police). People knelt when Stepinac passed through the streets.

The first severe blow fell with the arrest of twelve priests and six laymen, among them, Ivan Shalich, the Archbishop’s secretary. The charge: collaboration with the Ustashi, terrorist organization of the Croat fascist Ante Pavelich. Then the prosecutor prepared Stepanic’s indictment.

At week’s end, Msgr. Joseph Hurley, acting apostolic nuncio to Belgrade, rushed back to his post after consultations in Rome. The Tito Government prepared for an elaborate show trial. Said the Vatican’s Osservatore Romano: “We think of [Stepanic] like his Lord, accused of having deceived the people, of not having yielded unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, for having said that he was able to destroy in three days the temple of Titus. . . .” For Titus, the Vatican paper, which is written in Italian, used the Italian word, Tito.