TWENTIETH CENTURY ROMAN CATHOLIC TERROR IN CROATIA
AS SHE PURSUES A "CONVERT OR DIE" POLICY OF FORCIBLE CONVERSIONS
The article "Systematic Murder of Believers -- The Untold History of the Inquisition" (by former Roman Catholic priest Richard Bennett) has a section entitled, "Twentieth Century Inquisition in Croatia". This section surveys Roman Catholic complicity in the 20th century massacre of the people of Croatia. Croatia was basically carved out of Yugoslavia during World War II, the war when Adolf Hitler was in power. Anton Pavelic was the leader. Croatia was meant to be a Roman Catholic state. Excerpt from "Systematic Murder of Believers..."--
During Pavelic's four-year reign, he and Roman Catholic Prelate, Archbishop Alois Stepinac, pursued a "convert or die" policy among the 900,000 Greek Orthodox Serbs, Jews, and others in Croatia. 200,000 were converted; the 700,000 who chose to die were tortured, burned, buried alive, or shot after digging their own graves.There are two main names to know--(1) The leader of Croatia, Anton PAVELIC and (2) the Roman Catholic Archbishop STEPINAC. More from "Systematic Murder of Belivers..." about the massacre--
The mutilations were horrific, the tortures vicious, and the savagery terrible. The Catholic Church did not leave the execution of a religious war to the secular arm. She was there herself, openly ignoring precautions and bolder than she had been for a very long time. Wielding the hatchet or dagger, pulling the trigger, organizing the massacre, the Roman Catholic priests became their own instruments of the Inquisition....)More information concerning the horrific tragedy...
- According to spirituallysmart.com/croatia2.html, Roman Catholic Archbishop STEPINAC was found guilty of (1) collaborating with the Croatian Ustachi government and (2) complicity in allowing the forced conversion of the Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. The term "Ustachi" is often associated with terms like "murder squads", "terrorists", etc. of PAVELIC's Croatian Ustachi government. Spirituallysmart.com/croatia2.html called Pavelic's new independent state of Croatia, a "puppet state of Nazi Germany during World War II".
- According to spirituallysmart.com/croatia2.html, "[STEPINAC] was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but after five years was released and confined to his home parish....he WAS APPOINTED A CARDINAL [our note: a promotion] IN 1952 BY POPE PIUS XII." (POPE PIUS XII IS ALSO KNOWN AS "HITLER'S POPE"--THERE IS ACTUALLY A BOOK BY THIS NAME).
- According to spirituallysmart.com/croatia2.html, in 1998, POPE JOHN PAUL II DECLARED STEPINAC A MARTYR AND BEATIFIED HIM. [WHAT?] According to the same article (with pictures), there are memorials of STEPINAC and a High School named after him in White Plains New York--"ArchBishop Stepinac High School". Their website is at www.stepinac.org--I went and viewed it for myself. Its page entitled, "History" reads: "Archbishop Stepinac High School opened in 1948. It was named after Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac who was one of the most famous Croatian patriots of the 20th century...". Then, on that same page, under the section entitled, "About Blessed Cardinal Aloysius STEPINAC, "During World War II, Stepinac never turned his back on refugees, or the persecuted..." It goes on to say that STEPINAC openly criticized the Nazis and the Ustasha regime.
Proverbs 18:17 He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him.Call to the witness stand, The Vatican's Holocaust a book replete with much photographic evidence and plenty of information on STEPINAC and PAVELIC. The following picture and caption come from page 21 of The Vatican's Holocaust by Avro Manhattan (available from Chick Publications, chick.com)--
Archbishop Stepinac, Head of the Croatian Hierarchy, welcomes Ante Pavelic at the opening of the Ustachi Government in Zagreb, February 23, 1942.Stepinac was a steady, zealous and efficient partner of Pavelic's Dictatorship. He supported the Ustachi Government from the beginning until the end. Indeed, even after Ustashi Croatia collapsed following the disintegration of Nazi Germany.
Stepinac was not only the Head of the Council of Croatian Bishops and of the Committee which carried out a policy of forcible conversions, he was none other than the Supreme Military Apostolic Vicar of the Ustashi Army.
When Ustashi Croatia fell in 1945 as a result of the defeat of Nazi Germany and Pavelic had to run for his life, Archbishop Stepinac, in a vain effort to save the Regime, succeeded him as Head of Ustashi Croatia.
Stepinac ordered special ceremonies in all the Catholic churches on Pavelic's birthday, and he frequently invoked the blessing of God upon the Ustachi.
- More on Stepinac from Vatican's Holocaust--a picture caption from page 98 (emphases ours)--
The Papal legate (in white), Archbishop STEPINAC, Ante PAVELIC (in Ustashi uniform) and his wife, at the opening of a home for children at Tuskanac.
Pope Pius XII's representative participated in most of the official and semi-official functions of Ustashi Croatia. He was an eye witness to the promotion of PAVELIC and to STEPINAC'S policies of terrorization and Catholicization of Croatia. He knew of the atrocities and horrors taking place. He watched the progress of the forcible conversions, was aware of the wholehearted participation of the clergy in the wholesale massacre of thousands of Orthodox Serbs. All these things he faithfully reported to Pope Pius XII. In addition, Croatian Bishops wrote dispatches on the Ustashi horrors to the Pope, e.g. Dr. Ujchich, Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade.
The purpose of Homes for Children was usually to re-baptize Orthodox orphans and thus convert them to the Catholic Church.
- The website www.vaticanbankclaims.com testifies that even today, at this late date, there are people knocking at the Vatican's door to recover some of the wealth of the Ustachi victims that was looted. A lawsuit was filed. From the website,
"The plaintiffs are concentration camp survivors of Serb, Jewish, Roma and Ukrainian background and their relatives as well as organizations representing over 300,000 Holocaust victims and their heirs."The plaintiffs seek an accounting and recovery of the Ustasha Treasury that according to the US State Department was illicitly transferred to the Vatican, the Franciscan Order and other banks after the end of the war.
"Defendants currently include the Vatican Bank and Francisan Order. These defendants combined to conceal assets looted by the Croatian Nazis from concentration camp victims, Serbs Jews, Roma and former Soviet citizens from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia 1941-1945."
A copy of the lawsuit is on the website. It includes historical information, e.g., pages 43-44,
"129. Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska Concentration Camp complexes, termed by historians as the "Auschwitz of the Balkans," were the home of horrific and nearly indescribable brutality against Serbs, Jews, and Roma. The notorious Jasenovac camp was actually a complex of five major and three smaller "special" camps spread out over 240 square kilometers (150 square miles) in south-central Croatia. Along with hundreds of thousands of Serbs, some 30,000 Jews and at least 30,00 Romas (Gypsies) were murdered in these camps. The names of some 20,000 murdered children of all three nationalities collected thus far by historians provides only a fraction of the crimes committed there against children."130. The Ustasha at their concentration camps also looted from their victims their last remaining possessions before being murdered including gold teeth and dentures, wedding rings, and gold eyeglass frames. Textiles were reprocessed by agents of the Ustasha Regime from the bloodstained and soiled clothes of those murdered for the profit of the Ustasha Regime and its Treasury. The loot from the Ustasha run concentration camp complexes comprises a significant part of the Ustasha Treasury. Serbs and Jews were also occasionally ransomed from Ustasha Regime concentration camps, these funds also flowing into the Ustasha treasury."
There is more history there, much more. See pages 44--131.
"131. OFM [Franciscan] Monasteries, parish houses, cathedrals, Franciscan high schools, seminaries, etc. doubled as meeting places, recruiting centers, arms depots, and staging areas for the Ustasha terror in the years prior to and during the war."132. Upon the establishment of the Ustasha Regime individual Franciscan priests deserted their vocations and incited attacks on Serb and Roma settlements, tortured, killed and expropriated their victims in dozens of villages in Croatia and Bosnia. In one typical example, the Franciscan Priest Shimich exhorted Croats to commit genocide: "All Serbs must be murdered within the shortest time. That is our program." One of the most notorious examples of of the Franciscan clerical killers was Fr. Miroslav Filopovic-Majstorovic, known as "Brother Satan," who personally killed tens of thousands of Serbs at Jasenovac concentration camp..."
- The Vatican's Holocaust confirms the complicity of the Roman Catholic Francisan order. From page 102 (emphases ours)--
Monks and Friars were the backbone of the policy of forcible conversions. Many participated in acts of terrorism. E.g. Simic Vjeckoslav, a Monk of the monastery at Knin, who killed dozens of Orthodox with his own hands. Sidonije Solo, another Monk of the Franciscan monastery in Nasice, deported the Orthodox population of whole villages. The Abbot of the monastery of Guntic, Father G. Castimir, directed the massacre of hundreds of Orthodox at Glina.
Father Dr. Dragutin Kamber, a Jesuit, ordered the killing of about 300 Orthodox in Doboj, and the court martial of 250 others, most of whom were shot.
Father Srecko Peric, of the Gorica monastery, on August 10, 1941 personally incited the massacre of more than 5,000 Orthodox in the district of Livno.
Friars were Ustashi officers. Others Commandants of Concentration Camps.
Above, Ante PAVELIC during one of his periodical visits to Franciscan monasteries.
- From The Vatican's Holocaust, page 99 (emphases ours)--
Catholic Religious Orders gave total and continuous support to the Ustachi. Before the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (1941) their convents were hiding places for Ustashi terrorists, concealed Ustashi presses and were depositories of Ustashi subversive literature and even of hand grenades, guns and dynamite.
The Ustashi carried out their activities screened by the members of Religious Orders, male and female. Nuns prepared uniforms, emblems and medical equipment for Ustashi detachments.
Nuns looked after "poor little orphans," i.e. children whose parents had been murdered by the Ustashi, all of which children were re-baptized into the Catholic Church. In this manner thousands were converted to the "true faith." Hundreds of Catholic nuns became specialized in the "conversion" of the young.
In this photograph, Ante Pavelic is shown surrounded by Catholic nuns after one of his visits to a Catholic convent engaged upon the furtherance of the Ustashi Catholicization of Croatia.
- Chapter 8 of Vatican's Holocaust is entitled, "The True Inspirer, Promoter and Executor of the Religious Massacres: The Vatican". In that chapter, the following is noted (as a caption) on page 94,
"The Bishops and Archbishops of Croatia gave full support to the Ustashi. Indeed many of them were themselves Ustashi long before Ustashi Croatia came into being, e.g., Dr. Ivan Saric, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, who had been an Ustashi agitator since 1934. or Mgr. Dionizije, one of the Heads of the Ministry of Cults, dealing with forcible conversions, who was Ante Pavelic's confessor....Others became full fledged members of the Ustashi Parliament, e.g. Mgr. Aksamovic, Bishop of Djakovo.
The Hierarchy were the inspirers of the forcible mass conversions. A Committee of Three dealing with them was composed of the Bishop of Senj. the Bishop of Krizevci, Dr. Simrak, and Archbishop STEPINAC himself, working in conjunction with the Ustashi Minister of Justice. The whole Hierarchy gave canonical sanction to forcible conversions, following a Bishops' Conference in Zagreb, November 17, 1941.
Ante PAVELIC's regime stood upon the Hierarchy's unqualified support...
The caption on page 95 states (emphases ours)--
THE VATICAN WAS WELL INFORMED OF WHAT WAS GOING ON INSIDE OF USTASHI CROATIA. Not only because the Catholic Hierarchy sent the Pope regular reports, but because THE POPE HAD HIS OWN PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE THERE.The duty of the Papal Legate was to send regular and accurate information on the exertions of the Catholic clergy and Bishops. Also on the political and military doings of the Ustashi Government and of its leaders.
POPE PIUS XII's REPRESENTATIVE ON THE SPOT WAS THE PAPAL LEGATE, mgr. Marcone, who was accredited to the the Ustashi Government and to PAVELIC. Mgr. Marcone was minutely briefed on every aspect of the Catholic Hierarchy and the Ustashi collaborators. In fact, HE WAS THE SPOKESMAN, not only of the the Croatian Hierarchy when reporting to the Vatican, but EQUALLY OF PIUS XII WHEN REPORTING TO ARCHBISHOP STEPINAC AND PAVELIC.
Above, Mgr. Marcone, flanked by Archbishop STEPINAC and Nazi-Ustachi officers, at a Ustashi Meeting.
- Pages 100-101 of The Vatican's Holocaust (emphases ours)--
"When examined without the frills and obscurities of their official phraseology, the various directives issued by these Hierarchical bodies turn out to be but faithful copies of similar instructions repeatedly given for centuries throughout the Christendom of the darkest Middle Ages. For that is what in reality they are. [our note: basically he is saying that these are the same rules that were operating during the Inquisition] That a Catholic Hierarchy should have been permitted to re-issue them in the middle of the twentieth century is certainly one of the most sinister social phenomena of a civilization in swift decay.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.
...Pius XII 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 as in peace-time...
- Two more names that keep popping up when reading about PAVELIC's Croatia-- (1) the Jasenovac concentration camp and (2) Roman Catholic Franciscan Priest Filopovic, who has been dubbed "Father Satan" and "Brother Satan." From page 72 of The Vatican's Holocaust (emphases ours)--
The Franciscan Monk, Father Miroslav Filipovic. Left as a priest, wearing his cassock. Right in Ustashi uniform. Father Filipovic was the Commandant of the terrible concentration camp at Jasenovac.
Father Filipovic, chief ecclesiastical murderer of Croatia, although a Monk of the Order of St. Francis, was a fanatical Ustashi long before the Second World War. His political and religious ruthlessness can be judged by the fact that, while addressing a battalion of the armed Ustashi in the village of Drakulic, he killed an Orthodox child with his own hands.
Resenting the Orthodox reluctance to be "re-baptized," he told the armed Ustashi to "re-Christen these degenerates in the name of God. You follow my example." One thousand five hundred Orthodox Serbs were executed in one single day.
As Commandant of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp, Father Filipovic, aided by Father Zvonko Brekalo, Father Z. Lipovac, and Father Culina, caused the death of 40,000 men, women and children during the period of his administration.
- In reading about the massacres in Croatia, one reads about "Croats" and "Serbs". I gather that, although there may be ethnic differences [reader must do more research to get definite answers] between the Croat and Serbs, "Croats" generally speaking, refers to the Catholics in the region, while "Serbs" refers to members of the Orthodox religion. Croatia was to be an independent Catholic state--and those who would not be forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism were to be destroyed or sent away. According to the wikipedia article, "Roman Catholicism in Croatia", Today "[t]here are an estimated 3.8 million baptised Roman Catholics in Croatia, roughly 85% of the population."
- In the book, "The Vatican's Holocaust" by Avro Manhattan (a book replete with much photographic evidence) we learn that not all Croatian Catholics went along with the murders and massacres. There were Catholics that raised their voices in protest against this abomination. The people killed may not have been Christians, but they still should not have been killed.
From The Vatican's Holocaust page 46--
Ustashi cutting the throat of one of their Serbian Orthodox victims. Notice how a Ustashi is holding a vessel to collect the first spurt of blood and thus prevent their uniforms from being blood stained. The brutal crime--one of many--took place near Cajnice in 1943.
This type of execution was not exceptional. Some Ustashi specilized [sic] in dispatching their Orthodox prisoners in this manner.
Catholic priests, friars, and, indeed, even some of their pupils, followed their example. The case of peter Brzica is undoubtedly one of the most incredible in this category. Brzica was a law student and an ardent member of the foremost Catholic organization called the Catholic Crusaders. During the day and night of 29th August 1942, Brzica cut the throats of 1,300 prisoners in the Concentration Camp of Jasenovac. He was rewarded with a gold watch and proclaimed King of the Cutthroats. Dr. Nikola Kilolic, a Croat and a Catholic, was an eye witness to the deed.
- Synopsis of the book Convert...or Die by Edmond Paris (as found at openlibrary.org)--
During World War II, unnoticed by much of the world, a new nation was carved out of Yugoslavia. The "Independent State of Croatia" was to be entirely Roman Catholic. Its leaders promised to either convert or execute the non-Catholic Serbs. Over 700,000 were tortured beheaded, even buried alive, all in the name of Christ. In this well-documented book, historian Edmond Paris proves that the Roman Catholic Church must bear responsibility for this bloodbath...
- Also of note is the title of chapter 9 of The Vatican's Holocaust: "Catholic Campaign of Denial, Smear and Falsification". It reads in part (emphases ours)--
Rumours of the forcible conversions and of the Ustashi massacres began to leak out of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia from its earliest stage. At first they received hardly any credence. That people should be killed for their religion could not be accepted in the middle of the 20the Century.Yet the tales of individual witnesses, when added to the stories of Itialian Fascist troops and even Nazi ones, could not be ignored forever. In view also of the fact that many described the Croatian horrors in their letters home, some having even taken "snaps" of the deeds.
When, finally, these could no longer be denied, counterrumors began to circulate to the effect that they were anti-Catholic propaganda, anti-Croat lies. Indeed, even "Gestapo-cooked" inventions.
The Croats and their Catholic supporters accused the Nazis, the Communists, the Serbs, and even the Allies, in turn, of having started the atrocity stories.
Since evidence, however, went on accumulating, they were finally compelled to adopt three well defined tactics, which they carried out with simultaneous consistency: (a) prevention of the arrival of fresh news; (b) the playing down or minimization, and even denial, of what had already become known; and (c) a smear campaign against all and sundry engaged upon telling events in Croatia.
The intrigues, lies, plots and utter falsification directed to these ends became a grand strategy in themselves.
Lying and deflecting and obfuscating and flooding out the truth by every means available can be made into a science--especially when one has practically instantaneous access to the channels of information, e.g., newspapers, pulpits, radio, tv, publishing houses, and the school system textbooks.
There is a such thing as a dishonest person purposely deflecting the truth by spurting out lies and just any nonsense that will take up somebody's time or put them on the defensive, as in, "You're an anti-Catholic!" Notice in the excerpt, the mention of "anti-Catholic propaganda". That old trick is still around, calling people "anti-Catholic" anytime they tell the truth. Upon hearing incontrovertible historical facts, brainwashed people almost instantly rise up to defend Roman Catholic crimes by calling people anti-Catholic. The masses act as if they are Catholic themselves even if they have never entered a Catholic church. The word "history" does not mean "anti-Catholic". History is itself, a statement or record of an event that has already happened. May people's minds be cleared. The god of this world has blinded people's minds and the people have been made drunk with the wine of the fornication of the great whore of Revelation 17.
People are ignorant of righteousness and are therefore deceived. People have been miseducated and uneducated and are ignorant. I was in the system, too, and in the same situation as they are, but I got saved and, by God's almighty power and grace and love and longsuffering and kindness and mercy and understanding, he let me read his word and obtain strength to understand. People are overwhelmed by the burdens of living in sin and in living in such a sinful nation as America now is. The visible church bears practically no resemblance to the church of Acts. It is worldly and full of many, many innumerable abominations. I can remember trying to go to her for answers, and coming up short.
America's former strength and power was in the freedom found under people basically trying to live under the basic laws of God--even though all of those people were not saved. Under the principles of freedom and basic Bible-based laws, the foundling nation soon grew to be the world's superpower--but it did not take long to start bringing her down with a concerted effort. Why? The nation and the churches did not cleave to God's word and precepts. America is now an exceedingly sinful nation laden with iniquity, abominations, whoredom, and the blood of innocents. There are many, many inconveniences, catastrophes, and disasters in sin--one of which is deeply ignorant and deceivable people.
Link(s):
Roman Catholic Terror in Croatia: An Index of Articles
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