Lies about Stepinac

by Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Truth & Justice
The View from Washington

Lies about Stepinac
Of all the news accounts regarding Pope John Paul II’s funeral and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s accession to the papacy, the most interesting was the American liberal media’s attempt to once again smear the reputation of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac. The New York Times published an article saying that the late Pope John Paul had “incensed” his critics by the decision to beatify Cardinal Stepinac in 1998. The article went on to claim that Stepinac was the “archbishop of Zagreb during World War II, when a Nazi puppet
regime ruled Croatia and 700,000 Serbs, Jews and others were sent to death camps.”
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour also cited the beatification of Stepinac as one of the most “controversial” acts of John Paul’s papacy. She scolded the pope for elevating to sainthood a man who was the head of the Croatian Catholic Church at a time “when the Croatian fascists
were almost aligned with the Catholic Church and had had these terrible pogroms against the Serbs during World War II.” It is easy to dismiss these claims as ignorant statements from reporters who should know better. But that would be a grave mistake. For the
charges leveled by The New York Times and CNN against Stepinac are the culmination of decades of effective propaganda by Yugoslav authorities and Serbian lobbying organizations within the United States.
The essence of this smear campaign is the allegation that Stepinac, along with the Croatian Catholic Church, collaborated with Ante Pavelic’s fascist regime. Moreover, Stepinac’s critics charge that the archbishop either tacitly supported or at the very least turned a blind
eye to the crimes perpetrated by the NDH, such as mass murder, genocide and forced religious conversions. Stepinac is largely viewed by America’s Serbian community and their political allies as a “murderer saint.” Although many in the U.S. establishment media do not take
such an extreme position, they certainly believe that Stepinac was some kind of a fascist collaborator.
What is remarkable about the “Stepinac-was-a-Nazi-quisling” myth is that it is entirely false. In fact, the allegations are directly contradicted by the overwhelming historical evidence that has come to light since the collapse of Yugoslavia. The wealth of information that has emerged
from the newly discovered archives in Moscow, Belgrade and Zagreb has been especially damaging to Tito’s communist regime. This is particularly true about Stepinac and the numerous lies propagated against him. Stepinac was not a fascist, nor even an authoritarian right-winger. Rather, he was a principled constitutional liberal who supported Vladko Macek’s Croat Peasant Party. In 1938, after he became Archbishop of Zagreb, he openly declared that he had voted for Macek in the
elections.Nor was he a Serbophobe as some of his later critics have charged. Instead, the opposite was true. For much of his youth, Stepinac had been a champion of South Slav unity. During World War I, he even volunteered to join the Yugoslav Legion to fight Austro-Hungarian
troops on the Salonika front. But his rapid disillusionment with Royalist Yugoslavia paralleled that of most Croats. It was Belgrade’s stifling brutality, its numerous pogroms against Croatian peasants, its imprisonment of leading Croatian politicians (Stjepan Radic being the most
notable) and exploitation of the Croatian economy that most disturbed him.
In fact, no other figure in Croatian history—with the possible exception of Franjo Tudjman—so closely embodied the political evolution of the wider Croatian public as did Stepinac. When he fell under the spell of South Slav unity, so did they; when he reached out for Radic’s
program of home-rule and social democracy, so did they; when he drank from the poisoned chalice of Pavelic’s pseudo-independent state
only to recoil in disgust, so did they; and when he stood up to Tito’s victorious armies in defense of human rights and national self-determination only to be crushed, so did they. Stepinac’s major flaw was that he was prone to be naïve about politics (and on this he also reflected the great weakness in the Croatian
national character, which sadly continues to this day). Nowhere was this trait more clearly on display than during the first several weeks of the NDH. Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia in April, 1941, Stepinac—along with many other Croats—did initially welcome
the creation of the NDH. Yet Stepinac’s reasons were similar to those of many of his fellow countrymen: It was not a fascist state that he welcomed, but the end of Croatia’s subjugation under Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. However, he quickly realized that Pavelic’s NDH was an entirely different creature from what he had hoped and expected. The Ustashe almost immediately began to erect a racialist totalitarian state modeled on Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. Moreover, the Ustashe
quickly lost whatever mass appeal they had when the actual terms of this supposed new “independent” state were made known to the public. Croatia was truncated into several parts, with much of Dalmatia annexed to Italy and German and Hungarian troops exercising “spheres of influence” over large swaths of NDH territory, including Bosnia. In short, rather than securing genuine national independence, Pavelic had transformed Croatia into a colony of Berlin and Rome. He had simply transferred his country from one foreign dictatorship to another; only now it was not the Serbs, but the Germans and Italians who
were calling the shots. Pavelic’s dwindling popularity among most Croats was evident from the summer of 1941 and lasted until the end of the war. His regime had
alienated most people in Dalmatia. It was also deeply unpopular in Croatia’s population heartland of Slavonia, where the overwhelming  majority of citizens retained their loyalty to the Croatian Peasant Party (many of whose leaders were imprisoned by the Ustashe). Much of  the Zagreb bourgeoisie and intelligentsia were also opposed to him. However, Pavelic’s lack of support was especially evident in the fact  that, throughout his entire tenure in office, he never managed to orchestrate the kind of fascist mass rallies common under Hitler, Mussolini  and Franco. The Croatian public quickly understood that Pavelic was not their liberator, but their slave master.
Stepinac’s genius and moral greatness lay in that he realized this and sought to do something about it. In numerous letters and homilies  throughout 1941 and 1942, he chastised Pavelic and other senior members of the regime for the mass killings, rapes and state-sanctioned
racial laws directed against Jews, Serbs and Gypsies. “No one can deny that these terrible acts of violence and cruelty have been taking  place,” Stepinac wrote to Pavelic in a letter dated Nov. 20, 1941. “The Croatian nation has been proud of its 1,000-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.”
He later denounced to Pavelic the Jasenovac concentration camp as “a shameful stain on the honor of the NDH.”
In a powerful homily delivered from Zagreb Cathedral in the fall of 1942, Stepinac assaulted the anti-human and collectivist ideologies of  Nazism, fascism and communism. “Each nation and each race has the right to life and treatment worthy of man,” he said. “This is why the Catholic Church has always
condemned, and is today condemning the injustice and acts of violence committed in the name of theories of class, race and nation.” Yet Stepinac did more than speak out against the evils of his time. He also acted, often at the risk of his own life. The Archbishop directly
intervened to save thousands of lives—Jews, Serbs and anti-fascist Croats—during the war. Amiel Shomrony, who served under the last  Chief Rabbi of Zagreb, Miroslav Freiberger, has testified that Stepinac rescued countless Jews by helping to smuggle them to Hungary and
then on to safety in Palestine. Following Stepinac’s 1946 conviction by Tito’s Partisans on trumped up charges of collaboration with the Ustashe, Louis Braier,
then-president of the Jewish Community in the United States, said that the Archbishop was “one of the few men who rose in Europe against
the Nazi tyranny precisely at the moment it was most dangerous. He spoke openly and fearlessly against the racial laws. After His Holiness,
Pius XII, he was the greatest defender of the Jews persecuted in Europe."
By the end of the war, Stepinac had become such a staunch opponent of the NDH regime that many of his closest aides urged him to flee to
the Vatican for fear that he would be murdered by Pavelic’s secret police. Until the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991, the communist
authorities sought to cover up the fact that, for much of the Second World War, Tito’s Partisans frequently incorporated Stepinac’s
speeches in their propaganda, especially his assaults on fascism, racism and Pavelic’s violation of human rights.
Upon coming to power, Tito realized that the Archbishop was his most dangerous opponent. The communist strongman was determined to
destroy Stepinac’s reputation. Tito also sought to smash the principal bulwark to his totalitarian rule: the Croatian Catholic Church.
For the Partisans, Stepinac’s great sin was that he refused to follow the example of the Serbian Orthodox Church hierarchy, which had
become co-opted by the new regime. Stepinac, however, spurned Tito’s demand that Croatia’s Catholic Church separate from the Vatican,
and form its own “national” church with the Archbishop as its head.
In the end, the Archbishop refused to be corrupted by power. His greatness lay in the fact that, more than any other individual during
post-World War II Yugoslavia, he grasped the entire evil nature of Tito’s communist empire. Stepinac courageously spoke out against all of
the crimes committed by the communists—the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Croatian dissidents; the confiscation of private
property; the restoration of a centralized, Serb-dominated autocracy anchored in Belgrade; the abrogation of basic human rights and democratic freedoms; the expulsion of 700,000 ethnic Germans; the destruction of Croatia’s economy and environment; and the imposition
of monolithic state control over the media and education.
Milovan Djilas, who was Tito’s right-hand man for much of the 1940s before he became disillusioned with the brutality and mendacity of the regime, later admitted that “we communists did not want any opposition, none whatsoever.” Stepinac understood that Tito’s Yugoslavia was a genocidal project that sought to eradicate Croatia’s distinct culture and national identity.
And that the Partisans’ main thrust of attack was to strangle the cradle of Croatian civilization, the Catholic Church. This is why the communists immediately launched a sweeping campaign to persecute the church. Hundreds of priests and nuns were slaughtered. Church property was confiscated. Numerous churches were turned into warehouses and communist “cultural centers.” Compulsory civil marriage was introduced.
Most importantly, jurisdiction over education was stripped from the Church and placed into the hands of the state, thereby enabling the Yugoslav authorities to systematically indoctrinate the youth. The schools, along with the media, were the primary vehicles by which the authorities in Belgrade brainwashed the Croatian youth. The result was that it produced generations of self-loathing Croats who were taught
to despise their culture, history and religion.The linchpin of this anti-Croatian, anti-Catholic strategy was to portray all Croats who championed national independence as “fascists”
seeking to revive Pavelic’s NDH. As part of this strategy, Tito’s Communists had to present the Catholic Church as a reactionary, pro-Ustashe organization complicit in genocide and mass murder. And Stepinac, being the most famous symbol of the Croatian Catholic Church and the Croatian national cause, had to be crucified. His 1946 show trial in Belgrade was a complete sham. The “guilty” verdict was decided before the trial even began. Djilas himself confessed that Stepinac was condemned not for any supposed collaboration with the NDH, but for his opposition to Tito. “He would certainly not have been brought to trial for his conduct in the war … had he not continued to oppose the new Communist regime,” Djilas later wrote.
“"To honestly tell the truth, I think, and not only I, that Stepinac is a man of integrity, a firm character, who is impossible to break,” Djilas
said in 1956. “He was really unjustly convicted, but how many times has it happened in history that just people were convicted out of political necessity."Only Stepinac’s international notoriety saved him from a grisly execution. Still, he suffered harsh imprisonment, and then later house arrest
and internal exile in his native village of Krasic. Moreover, evidence now shows that he was slowly poisoned to death by Tito’s secret police.
The real tragedy of Stepinac is not that he suffered and died on behalf of his people and his faith. This is the duty of all devout Christians. It is also not that the Croatian media and diplomatic corps has been weak in its defense of this great man against the barrage of propaganda emanating from Belgrade, the Serbian lobby in Washington and their hacks in the U.S. media establishment.
No. The real tragedy is that many Croats, especially those on the Mesic-Racan-Pusic Left, actually believe many of the lies told about Stepinac. They are the products of decades of Communist social engineering. And while Tito’s multinational Yugoslavia may be dead, they continue to share many of its goals and prejudices. For these hard leftists, the Catholic Church, with its opposition to abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage and sexual permissiveness, continues to be a reactionary force that needs to be marginalized. They continue to excuse the numerous crimes of communism. They continue to deride Croatian patriotism and the existence of a distinct national identity. And they
continue to view themselves as “anti-fascists,” insisting on perpetuating the Titoist myth that cut-throat Ustashes are lurking under every corner in Croatia.
In short, they have retained the self-hating, racist attitudes inculcated by their former communist masters. They genuinely believe that to be a
proud and authentic Croat is to be some kind of a fascist. This is why their current political agenda is to de-Tudjmanize and de-Croatianize their country, and to strip it of all national symbols and content. Their hope is for Croatia to again plunge itself into an internationalist project, whether it be a European socialist super state or a reconstituted Balkan union. Stepinac’s enduring legacy is that he offered a distinctly different vision for Croatia. He understood that God, country and family were the fundamental institutions of a just society. He saw the evils of totalitarianism and imperialism. He championed a democratic and independent Croatia, rooted in its Catholic heritage and based on human rights, social justice and constitutional self-government. Stepinac embodied the very best of Croatia—the Croatia of priests and peasants, princes and poets, knights and kings, professionals and philosophers. His Croatia
was not that of gangsters, opportunists and cheap propagandists; it was neither communist Red nor fascist Black. Rather, it was a democratic and patriotic White.It is this inspiring vision, along with his principled defense of human freedom in the face of unimaginable horror, which makes Stepinac one of the giants of the 20th century. He is Croatia’s saint.
 

- Jeffrey T. Kuhner is communications director at The Ripon Society (www.riponsoc.org), a major Republican think tank based in Washington, D.C. He is also a regular contributor to the Commentary pages of The Washington Times. This essay is adapted from Mr. Kuhner’s upcoming book, “Fatal Embrace: The Croat-Serb Conflict in the 20th Century.” Mr. Kuhner would like to give special thanks to
Danica Ramljak for her invaluable research assistance in the writing of this article.


Nadnaslov: Novoobnovljene laĹži o Stepincu plod su srpske propagande u Americi

STEPINAC – SVETAC KOJI JE STRADAO I UMRO ZA SVOJ NAROD I VJERU!
Glavni StepinÄ?ev 'grijeh' nije bila navodna suradnja s Pavelićem, nego to ĹĄto je bio oporba diktatoru Titu!

Pod 1) Njegova je veliÄ?ina u tomu ĹĄto je, bolje nego itko u poratnoj Jugoslaviji, prozreo svu zloću Titova komunistiÄ?kog carstva. Stepinac je
hrabro istupao protiv svih komunistiÄ?kih zloÄ?ina: masovnih ubojstava stotina tisuća svojih hrvatskih politiÄ?kih protivnika; konfiskacija
privatnog vlasniĹĄtva; povratka centralizirane autokracije uĹĄanÄ?ene u Beogradu i pod prevlašću Srba; krĹĄenja temeljnih ljudskih prava i
demokratskih sloboda; protjerivanja 700.000 pripadnika njemaÄ?ke manjine; uniĹĄtenja hrvatskog gospodarstva i okoliĹĄa i nametanje
monolitne drĹžavne vlasti nad medijima i naobrazbom

Pod 2) Hrvatski mediji i diplomacija slabi su u obrani ovoga velikoga Ä?ovjeka protiv propagandne bujice iz Beograda, srpskog lobija u
Washingtonu i njegovih plaćenika u najmoćnijim ameriÄ?kim medijima. Prava tragedija je ĹĄto mnogi Hrvati, osobito oni s
Mesić-RaÄ?an-Pusićkine ljevice doista vjeruju u brojne laĹži koje su reÄ?ene o Stepincu. One su proizvod desetljeća komunistiÄ?kog socijalnog
inĹženjeringa. I dok je Titova Jugoslavija moĹžda doista mrtva, oni i dalje dijele mnoge njezine teĹžnje i predrasude

PiĹĄe: Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Zanimljiviji od svih medijskih prikaza pokopa Ivana Pavla II. i izbora kardinala Josepha Ratzingera za novog papu bili su pokuĹĄaji ameriÄ?kih
liberalnih medija da joĹĄ jednom okrnje ugled kardinala Alojzija Stepinca.

New York Times je tako objavio Ä?lanak u kojemu stoji kako je papa Ivan Pavao 'razjario' svoje kritiÄ?are odlukom da 1998. godina beatificira kardinala Stepinca. U Ä?lanku se dalje tvrdi kako je Stepinac bio «zagrebaÄ?ki nadbiskup tijekom 2. svjetskog rata, u vrijeme kada
je Hrvatskom vladao nacistiÄ?ki marionetski reĹžim, a 700.000 Srba, Ĺ˝idova i drugih poslano u logore smrti».

Christiane Amanpour sa CNN-a također je navela StepinÄ?evu beatifikaciju kao jedan od 'kontroverznih' poteza pape Ivana Pavla. Ona ga je ukorila ĹĄto je uzdigao na Ä?ast oltara Ä?ovjeka koji je bio poglavarom hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve u vrijeme «kada su hrvatski faĹĄisti bili
gotovo svrstani s katoliÄ?kom crkvom i provodili straĹĄne pogrome protiv Srba tijekom 2. svjetskog rata».

Lako bi bilo opovrgnuti ove tvrdnje kao neznanje nedoraslih izvjestitelja da to uistinu nije bila teĹĄka pogrjeĹĄka. OptuĹžbe New York Timesa i CNN-a protiv Stepinca tek su vrhunac djelotvorne promidĹžbe jugoslavenskih vlasti i srpskih lobistiÄ?kih udruga u SAD-u.

SrĹž ove crne legende je tvrdnja kako su Stepinac i hrvatska katoliÄ?ka crkva surađivali s faĹĄistiÄ?kim reĹžimom Ante Pavelića. Ĺ toviĹĄe, StepinÄ?evi kritiÄ?ari tvrde kako je nadbiskup preĹĄutno podupirao ili barem gledao kroz prste zloÄ?inima NDH, kao ĹĄto su masovna ubojstva,
genocid i nasilno pokrĹĄtavanje. Srbi u Americi i njihovi politiÄ?ki saveznici Stepinca uglavnom smatraju 'svecem ubojicom'. I mada mnogi vodeći ameriÄ?ki mediji ne dijele takvo ekstremno stajaliĹĄte, oni zacijelo misle kako je Stepinac bio neka vrsta faĹĄistiÄ?kog suradnika.

U mitu o Stepincu kao 'nacistiÄ?kom kvislingu' zapanjuje ĹĄto je on potpuno laĹžan. Ovim tvrdnjama, zapravo, proturjeÄ?e neoborivi povijesni
dokazi izaĹĄli na svjetlo dana nakon raspada Jugoslavije. Obilje podataka iz novootkrivenih pismohrana u Moskvi, Beogradu i Zagrebu osobito je razorno za Titov komunistiÄ?ki reĹžim. Ovo posebno vaĹži za Stepinca i mnogobrojne laĹži koje su se ĹĄirile o njemu.

Stepinac nije bio faĹĄist pa ni autoritarni desniÄ?ar. Naprotiv, bio je dosljedni ustavni liberal koji je podupirao Hrvatsku seljaÄ?ku stranku Vlatka MaÄ?eka. Nakon ĹĄto je 1938. godine postao zagrebaÄ?kim nadbiskupom, otvoreno je izjavio kako je na izborima glasovao za MaÄ?eka.

Međ) Hrvati su slijedili Stepinca, a ne Pavelića

Stepinac nije bio ni srbofob, kao ĹĄto su mu neki kasniji kritiÄ?ari predbacivali. Istina je suprotna: dobar dio svoje mladosti Stepinac je
zagovarao juĹžnoslavensko jedinstvo. Tijekom 1. svjetskog rata Ä?ak je dragovoljno pristupio jugoslavenskoj legiji u borbi protiv austrougarske vojske na solunskoj bojiĹĄnici, ali se, kao i većina Hrvata, brzo razoÄ?arao kraljevskom Jugoslavijom. NajviĹĄe ga je muÄ?ilo
sirovo beogradsko nasilje, brojni pogromi hrvatskih seljaka, uhićenja vodećih hrvatskih politiÄ?ara, u prvom redu Stjepana Radića, kao i gospodarsko izrabljivanje.

Zapravo, ni jedno drugo ime u hrvatskoj povijesti – moĹžda s izuzetkom Franje Tuđmana – nije tako rjeÄ?ito utjelovilo politiÄ?ki razvitak ĹĄire hrvatske javnosti kao Stepinac. Kad je on postao zatoÄ?nikom juĹžnoslavenskog jedinstva, i ona je to bila; kad je pio iz zatrovanog pehara Pavelićeve nazovi-nezavisne drĹžave i zatim ga s gnuĹĄanjem odbio, uÄ?inili su to i Hrvati; kad se suprotstavio Titovoj pobjedniÄ?koj vojsci braneći ljudska prava i nacionalno samoodređenje, plativĹĄi to skupo – i Hrvati s bili s njim.

StepinÄ?eva glavna grjeĹĄka bila je politiÄ?ka naivnost (i u tome je on slika i prilika te velike mane u naravi hrvatskog naroda, koja, naĹžalost, traje do dana danaĹĄnjeg). Ona je najjasnije iskazana u prvih nekoliko tjedana NDH. Nakon napada nacistiÄ?ke NjemaÄ?ke na Jugoslaviju u travnju 1941. godine Stepinac je – kao i mnogi drugi Hrvati – prvotno pozdravio stvaranje NDH. Ali njegove razloge dijelili su mnogi njegovi sunarodnjaci: nisu oni klicali faĹĄistiÄ?koj drĹžavi nego kraju hrvatske potlaÄ?enosti u Jugoslaviji pod srpskim gospodstvom.

On je, međutim, ubrzo shvatio kako je Pavelićeva NDH potpuno drukÄ?ija tvorevina od one koju je oÄ?ekivao i kojoj se nadao. UstaĹĄe su gotovo od poÄ?etka gradile rasistiÄ?ku totalitarnu drĹžavu po uzoru na Hitlerovu NjemaÄ?ku i Mussolinijevu Italiju. Ĺ toviĹĄe, ustaĹĄe su brzo izgubile i masovnu potporu koju su na poÄ?etku imali kad je javnost upoznala stvarne zasade ove navodno nove 'nezavisne' drĹžave. Hrvatska je raĹĄÄ?ereÄ?ena na nekoliko dijelova: veliki dio Dalmacije pripojen je Italiji i NjemaÄ?koj, a mađarska vojska drĹžala je vlast u 'utjecajnom podruÄ?ju' na velikim dijelovima zemlja NDH, ukljuÄ?ujući i Bosnu.

Umjesto da osigura istinsku nacionalnu nezavisnost, Pavelić je pretvorio Hrvatsku u koloniju Berlina i Rima. Jednostavno, svoju je zemlju iz
ruku jedne strane diktature predao drugoj, samo su sada, umjesto Srba, gazde bile Nijemci i Talijani.

Pisma Paveliću

Sunovrat Pavelićeve popularnosti među većinom Hrvata bio je oÄ?it od ljeta 1941. godine i takav je ostao do kraja rata. Njegov reĹžim odbacivala je većina ljudi u Dalmaciji, a bio je vrlo neomiljen u srcu hrvatske Slavonije, gdje je velika većina građana bila i dalje odana Hrvatskoj seljaÄ?koj stranci (Ä?ije su mnoge vođe dopale ustaĹĄkih zatvora). I velik mu se dio zagrebaÄ?kog građanstva i inteligencije odupirao. Ali, manjak potpore Paveliću osobito se oÄ?itovao u tome ĹĄto tijekom cijele vladavine on nikad nije uspio orkestrirati onakve masovne skupove, uobiÄ?ajene kod Hitlera, Mussolinija i Franca. Hrvatska javnost brzo je shvatila kako Pavelić nije nikakav osloboditelj nego goniÄ?
robova.

StepinÄ?ev genij i moralna veliÄ?ina je u tome ĹĄto je to shvatio i pokuĹĄao neĹĄto poduzeti. U brojnim pismima i propovijedima tijekom cijele 1941. i 1942. godine ĹĄibao je i druge visoke reĹžimske duĹžnosnike zbog masovnih ubojstava, silovanja i drĹžavno sankcioniranih rasnih zakona, uperenih protiv Ĺ˝idova, Srba i Cigana. «Nitko ne moĹže zanijekati da se događaju ta straĹĄna djela nasilja i okrutnosti», pisao je Stepinac Paveliću u pismu od 20. studenog 1941. godine. «Hrvatski narod ponosi se svojom tisućljetnom uljudbom i hrvatskom tradicijom. Stoga oÄ?ekujemo da se na djelu pokaĹže, danas kad smo postigli slobodu, viĹĄe plemenitosti i Ä?ovjeÄ?nosti, nego ĹĄto su to iskazivali njezini bivĹĄi vladari.» (op. prev.: navodi su prijevod s engleskog).

Kasnije je Paveliću prokazao jasenovaÄ?ki koncentracijski logor kao «sramnu ljagu na Ä?asti NDH».
U snaĹžnoj propovijedi u zagrebaÄ?koj katedrali u jesen 1942. godine Stepinac je napao neÄ?ovjeÄ?ne kolektivistiÄ?ke ideologije nacizma, faĹĄizma i komunizma.

«Svaki narod i svaka rasa ima pravo na Ĺživot i postupanje dostojno Ä?ovjeka», govorio je. «Stoga je katoliÄ?ka crkva uvijek osuđivala pa
osuđuje i danas nepravde i nasilja koja se provode u ime klasnih, rasnih i nacionalnih teorija».

Ali Stepinac nije samo propovijedao protiv zala svoga doba. On je i djelovao, Ä?esto dovodeći u opasnost i vlastiti Ĺživot. Nadbiskup se tijekom rata izravno zaloĹžio za spas tisuća Ĺživota – Ĺ˝idova, Srba i antifaĹĄistiÄ?kih Hrvata. Amiel Shomrony, koji je bio suradnikom posljednjeg zagrebaÄ?kog glavnog rabina Miroslava Freibergera, posvjedoÄ?io je kako je Stepinac spasio bezbroj Ĺ˝idova pomaĹžući im u bijegu do Mađarske, a zatim i do utoÄ?iĹĄta u Palestini.

Jedan od najvećih branitelja Židova

Nakon ĹĄto su Titovi partizani 1946. godine osudili Stepinca na osnovi namjeĹĄtenih optuĹžaba za suradnju s ustaĹĄama, Louis Braier, tadaĹĄnji predsjednik Ĺ˝idovske zajednice u SAD-u, rekao je kako je nadbiskup bio «jedan od rijetkih ljudi koji su se u Europi digli protiv nacistiÄ?ke tiranije upravo u vrijeme kad je to bilo najopasnije. Govorio je otvoreno i neustraĹĄivo protiv rasnih zakona. Nakon Njegove Svetosti Pija XII. on je bio najveći branitelj Ĺ˝idova, progonjenih u Europi».

Krajem rata Stepinac je postao tako Ĺžestoki protivnik reĹžima NDH da su ga mnogi najbliĹži prijatelji nagovarali na bijeg u Vatikan iz straha da ga Pavelićeva tajna policija ne ubije. Sve do raspada Jugoslavije 1991. godine komunistiÄ?ke vlasti pokuĹĄavale su prikriti Ä?injenicu da su, uvelike tijekom 2. svjetskog rata, Titovi partizani Ä?esto umetali StepinÄ?eve govore u svoju propagandu, navlastito njegove napade na faĹĄizam, rasizam i Pavelićevo krĹĄenje ljudskih prava.

Po dolasku na vlast Tito je shvatio kako je Stepinac njegov najopasniji protivnik. Ovaj komunistiÄ?ki diktator odluÄ?io je sruĹĄiti StepinÄ?ev ugled pokuĹĄavajući ukloniti i glavni kamen spoticanja njegovoj totalitarnoj vladavini: hrvatsku katoliÄ?ku crkvu.

Za partizane StepinÄ?ev veliki grijeh bilo je odbijanje da slijedi primjer hijerarhije Srpske pravoslavne crkve, koju je nova vlast vezala uza se. Stepinac je, pak, s prijezirom odbio Titov zahtjev za odvajanjem hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve od Vatikana i stvaranjem vlastite 'nacionalne' crkve s nadbiskupom na Ä?elu.

On je na kraju odbio prodati se vlasti. Njegova je veliÄ?ina u tomu ĹĄto je, bolje nego itko u poratnoj Jugoslaviji, prozreo svu zloću Titova komunistiÄ?kog carstva. Stepinac je hrabro istupao protiv svih komunistiÄ?kih zloÄ?ina: masovnih ubojstava stotina tisuća svojih hrvatskih politiÄ?kih protivnika; konfiskacija privatnog vlasniĹĄtva; povratka centralizirane autokracije uĹĄanÄ?ene u Beogradu i pod prevlašću Srba; krĹĄenja temeljnih ljudskih prava i demokratskih sloboda; protjerivanja 700.000 pripadnika njemaÄ?ke manjine; uniĹĄtenja hrvatskog gospodarstva i okoliĹĄa i nametanje monolitne drĹžavne vlasti nad medijima i naobrazbom.

Shvatio je kako je Jugoslavija genocidni projekt

Milovan Ä?ilas, koji je tijekom Ä?etrdesetih godina proĹĄlog stoljeća bio Titova desna ruka, prije nego ĹĄto se razoÄ?arao grubošću i podmuklošću reĹžima, kasnije je priznao da «mi komunisti nismo htjeli nikakvu oporbu».Stepinac je shvatio kako je Titova Jugoslavija genocidni projekt koji je htio iskorijeniti posebni hrvatski nacionalni identitet i kulturu pa je glavna oĹĄtrica partizanskih nasrtaja bila kolijevka hrvatske civilizacije, katoliÄ?ka crkva. Upravo stoga su komunisti odmah pokrenuli veliku kampanju njezinog progona. Ubijene su stotine svećenika i redovnica, a crkvena imovina je konfiscirana. Brojne crkve pretvorene su u skladiĹĄta i komunistiÄ?ke 'domove kulture'. Uvedena je obveza građanskog braka.

Ĺ to je najvaĹžnije, naobrazba je oduzeta crkvi i dana u drĹžavne ruke, Ä?ime je jugoslavenskim vlastima omogućena sustavna indoktrinacija mladeĹži. Ĺ kole i mediji bile su glavna sredstva kojima su beogradske vlasti ispirale mozak hrvatskoj mladeĹži. Posljedica su bila naraĹĄtaji Hrvata koji su prezreli svoj identitet, uljudbu, povijest i vjeru.

NajjaÄ?e oruĹžje ove protuhrvatske i protukatoliÄ?ke strategije bilo je prikazivanje Hrvata, koji su zagovarali nacionalnu nezavisnost, 'faĹĄistima' koji Ĺžele oĹživjeti Pavelićevu NDH. Kao dio ove strategije Titovi komunisti morali su predstaviti katoliÄ?ku crkvu kao reakcionarnu, proustaĹĄku organizaciju, sudionicu genocida i masovnih ubojstava. A Stepinac, kao najslavniji simbol hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve i hrvatske nacionalne stvari, morao je biti razapet.

Njegovo suđenje 1946. godine bilo je potpuna prijevara. Presuda «kriv je» donesena je joĹĄ prije poÄ?etka suđenja. I sam Ä?ilas priznao je kako Stepinac nije bio osuđen zbog navodne kolaboracije s NDH nego zbog oporbe Titu. «Zasigurno mu se ne bi sudilo zbog njegova ponaĹĄanja tijekom rata da se nije nastavio opirati novom komunistiÄ?kom reĹžimu», napisao je kasnije Ä?ilas.

«Iskreno govoreći, mislim, i ne samo ja, kako je Stepinac bio Ä?astan Ä?ovjek Ä?vrste naravi kojega je nemoguće slomiti», rekao je Ä?ilas 1956. godine. «On je bio doista nepravedno osuđen, ali u povijesti se Ä?esto događalo da se ljude osudi zbog politiÄ?ke potrebe».

Stepinca je od užasa smrtne kazne spasio samo njegov svjetski glas. Ali, nije ga spasio od teškog sužanjstva, a kasnije i kućnog pritvora i unutrašnjeg izgnanstva u rodnom selu Krašiću. Štoviše, ima novih dokaza kako ga je Titova tajna policija postupno trovala.

StepinÄ?eva vizija Hrvatske

Stvarna StepinÄ?eva tragedija nije to ĹĄto je stradao i umro za svoj narod i vjeru. To je duĹžnost svih vjernih kršćana. Nije ni istina da su hrvatski mediji i diplomacija slabi u obrani ovog velikog Ä?ovjeka protiv propagandne bujice iz Beograda, srpskog lobija u Washingtonu i njegovih plaćenika u najmoćnijim ameriÄ?kim medijima.

Ne, prava tragedija je da mnogi Hrvati, osobito oni s Mesić-RaÄ?an-Pusićkine ljevice doista vjeruju u brojne laĹži koje su reÄ?ene o Stepincu. One su proizvod desetljeća komunistiÄ?kog socijalnog inĹženjeringa. I dok je Titova Jugoslavija moĹžda doista mrtva, oni i dalje dijele mnoge njezine teĹžnje i predrasude. Za ove tvrde ljeviÄ?are, katoliÄ?ka crkva, sa svojim protivljenjem pobaÄ?aju, eutanaziji, homoseksualnim brakovima i spolnoj razuzdanosti i dalje je reakcionarna snaga koju treba ukloniti. Oni i dalje opravdavaju brojne komunistiÄ?ke zloÄ?ine, i dalje ismijavaju hrvatsko domoljublje i postojanje zasebnog nacionalnog identiteta, i dalje doĹživljavaju sebe kao 'antifaĹĄiste' ustrajavajući na titoistiÄ?kom mitu kako u Hrvatskoj «ustaĹĄa viri iza svakog busa».
Jednom rijeÄ?ju, zadrĹžali su rasistiÄ?ki stav samoporicanja i mrĹžnje koji su im usadili njihovi bivĹĄi komunistiÄ?ki uÄ?itelji. Oni doista misle da biti pravi i ponosni Hrvat znaÄ?i biti neka vrsta faĹĄista. Stoga je njihov politiÄ?ki program detuđmanizacija i dekroatizacija zemlje te uklanjanje njezinog nacionalnog znakovlja i sadrĹžaja. Nadaju se da će Hrvatska ponovno uroniti u joĹĄ jedan internacionalistiÄ?ki projekt, zvao se on europska socijalistiÄ?ka naddrĹžava ili obnovljena balkanska unija.

StepinÄ?evo trajno naslijeđe je njegova drukÄ?ija vizija Hrvatske. On je znao da su Bog, domovina i obitelj temeljne ustanove pravedna druĹĄtva. Vidio je zla totalitarizma i imperijalizma. Zagovarao je demokratsku i nezavisnu Hrvatsku, ukorijenjenu u svojoj katoliÄ?koj baĹĄtini i zasnovanu na ljudskim pravima, druĹĄtvenoj pravdi i ustavnom suverenitetu. Stepinac je bio izraz onog najboljeg u Hrvatskoj – Hrvatskoj seljaka i duhovnika, pjesnika i vladara, junaka i kraljeva, znanstvenika i filozofa. Njegova Hrvatska nije Hrvatska kriminalaca, beskiÄ?menjaka i jeftinih propagandista; nije bila ni komunistiÄ?ki crvena, ni faĹĄistiÄ?ki crna. Prije – demokratski i domoljubno kao snijeg bijela i Ä?ista.

Upravo ova njegova pobuđujuća vizija, kao i dosljedna obrana Ä?ovjekove slobode, suoÄ?ene s nezamislivim strahotama, Ä?ine Stepinca jednim od divova 20. stoljeća. On je hrvatski svetac.

(Jeffrey T. Kuhner direktor je komunikacija u Ripon Societyju (www.riponsoc.org), uglednoj analitiÄ?koj skupini ('think tanku') ameriÄ?ke Republikanske stranke, sa sjediĹĄtem u Washingtonu u SAD-u. Redovni je komentator Washington Timesa. Ovaj esej je prilagođeni izvadak njegove knjige Fatalni stisak: hrvatsko-srpski sukob u 20. stoljeću, koja je u pripremi. Gosp. Kuhner posebno zahvaljuje gospođi Danici Ramljak na njezinoj dragocjenoj pomoći u pisanju ovog Ä?lanka.)