Posted on 02/16/2014 4:18:32 PM PST by Ravnagora
ZAGREB - Alen Budaj, an associate of the Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, has said that the coutries that are legal successors to the former Yugoslavia, Serbia in particular, must send a strong diplomatic protest to the Vatican over its intention declare Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac a saint.
The Vatican has officially confirmed that Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac will soon be declared a saint.
Immediately upon the entering of the Germans in Zagreb, on April 10, 1941, Stepinac supported the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (ISC), which was declared a state by the Ustasha (Croatian fascist movement), and in 1945, he fought for the preservation of the regime headed by Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic.
Budaj believes that a protest against sanctifying Stepinac, who took part in the creation and implementation of NDH ideas during World War II, needs to be made even at the cost of breaking off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
“I hope that the Serbian Orthodox Church will react, since this particular decision made by the Vatican is also undermining the ecumenical relations between the two churches,” Budaj said, stressing that Israel and many Jewish institutions in the territory of the former Yugoslavia should react to this strongly and immediately.
It is not at all surprising that the new Pope Francis is proclaiming Stepinac a saint, as that road was mapped by the Catholic Church in Croatia immediately after the verdict against Stepinac had been delivered, said Budaj, who is also director of the Margel Institute, a Jewish NGO in Zagreb.
On October 11, 1946, Stepinac was found guilty of high treason and war crimes - for his relations with the Croatian Ustasha and collaboration with the occupation forces - and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In 1951, he was transferred to his native village of Krasic, where he spent the remainder of his life confined to his home parish until his death on February 10, 1960. As a sign of support, the Vatican awarded Stepinac the title of cardinal in 1952.
Budaj pointed out that already during his trial, the West and the Catholic world considered Stepinac to be a martyr and innocent victim of Communist persecution, that Stepinac has been made a cardinal while alive and beatified after death, and is now to be declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
He would be the only saint to receive a high distinction from the Ustasha headman, and that while being the Archbishop of Zagreb, for a merit he earned as a helper of a fascist, criminal regime, Budaj said, adding that a report about it appeared in Narodne Novine, the official mouthpiece of the NDH.
“While Monsignor Svetozar Ritig, prebendary of the Zagreb Chapter (Kaptol), saw in Pavelic an evil in the making as early as in 1929, Stepinac wholeheartedly greeted and served Pavelic. Ritig has no street (named after him) in Zagreb, as he was an anti-fascist, while Stepinac has all the honors as a clerical fascist,” said Budaj.
Budaj said it is no big wonder that Stepinac will be canonized, as the Vatican was recognized as a state by fascist Benito Mussolini's Lateran Treaty in 1929.
“I do not want to hear about Stepinac’s great merit in ‘saving’ Jews, because he was all the while drawing up in the official Catholic press Pavelic’s racial provisions by which the Jews were taken to concentration camps.
I do not want to hear about his efforts to save certain Serbs, because he was on the Committee of Three in charge of conversions to Catholicism and I do not want to hear about his being a martyr and saint because he left his own Catholic priests to be tortured by the Ustasha in Jasenovac (Ustasha concentration camp) just because they were under suspicion of being opponents of the regime,” Budaj said.
He pointed out that Stepinac never regretted over violent conversion of Serbs into Catholicism or over Jews being forcibly taken to be baptized, even though he knew it would not save them from being taken to the camp.
“He never repented his Catholic ‘baptized souls’ burning Jewish and Serbian churches, plundering around as wild hordes, raping and killing as crusader armies once did across the Holy Land,” Budaj said in an interview for SRNA news agency that was published in Banja Luka-based Nezavisne Novine.
He added that Stepinac knew about it all, but nevertheless bestowed blessings on the NDH and served it, even after its collapse, hiding Ustasha criminals, stolen Jewish gold and Ustasha state archive in the Zagreb Kaptol.
“To me, as a free man, Stepinac will never be a saint, as I am not bound by decisions of the Pope, nor have I lost my mind to believe in that fraudulent alchemy of miraculous transformation of a criminal into a saint,” said Budaj.
_______________
That link balkanpeace.org you reference has dubious ties.
“THE CENTRE FOR PEACE IN THE BALKANS”
BEWARE: This organization was established by the Serbian nationalists in Toronto (Canada) and serves as an extended hand of Belgrade propaganda
Above: Screenshot of “The Centre for Peace in the Balkans” promoting Srebrenica genocide denial material with Edward Herman’s article: “The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre.” Many similar articles (written by infamous genocide deniers) can be found on their site. To read response to Herman’s denials and conspiracy theories, click here.
Full article continues below...
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans (balkanpeace.org) is a Serbian propaganda media outlet based in Toronto, Canada. Here is a quick overview of this organization:
Objective
This organization presents itself as “balanced and accurate,” “non-profit corporation” with appealing ‘non-partisan’ name working for “peace” and against “the West’s flawed Balkan strategy” in the Balkans, “striving to advocate a balanced and accurate presentation” of the situation in the Balkans and to bring “NATO and military political leaders to stand trial.”
The main objective of this Serbian organization is to manipulate the public opinion with misinterpretation of facts concerning the recent conflict in the Former Yugoslavia. While there is plenty of material on their website portraying Bosniaks, Croats, and Albanians as “terrorists”, there is not a single piece of material on their web site condemning widespread human rights violations and massacres committed by the Serbs. In fact, this seemingly “peace-oriented” web site contains Srebrenica genocide denial material from many disgraced conspiracy theorists (see screenshot).
Who is behind ‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’?
‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ was founded by a young Serbian nationalist - Nikola Rajkovic - who was (according to the Serbian Unity Congres) “born in Montreal, but now permanently resides in Toronto, Canada.” Rajkovic is actively involved in regularly updating the site with copyrighted material lifted from the Reuters, Associated Press, and other stories he finds interesting.
In January 2002, Nikola Rajkovic was elected to serve as a member of FR Yugoslav Council of Diaspora by then Serbian-run Government in Belgrade. The Council is better known as the Canadian-Serbian Council. Nikola Rajkovic is also a Vice-President of Serbian National Shield Society in Canada - an organization run by Serbian immigrants.
According to the Serbian Unity Congress, “Council members from the Motherland have been named on the basis of recommendations received from the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
This same Church - namely the Serbian Orthodox Church - has been actively involved in encouraging their own people to support imprisoned Serb war criminals at the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague. The Orthodox priest, Father Vojislav Bilbija, even laughed at their indictments for genocide and human rights violations, quote: “[the] individual prisoners have told him that their indictments are so unbelievable that the only thing left for them to do during court trials is smile bitterly.” (See “Loneliness worse than imprisonment for Hague prisoners,” The Path or Orthodoxy, January 2002)
‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ & Srebrenica Genocide Denial
The interesting aim of ‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ seems to be the creation of an atmosphere of exaggerated and false messages of pure Serbian ‘innocence’ in the conflict. Those views deemed to be fit to serve Serbian propaganda are gladly published on their web site. Their favorite essays are republished from such widely circulated Srebrenica genocide denial sources as Edward S. Herman, Stella L. Jatras, Jared Israel, Diana Johnstone, George Pumphrey, Milivoje Ivanisevic, Yossef Bodansky, Nebojsa Malic, David Peterson, and other conspiracy theorists (see here).
As respected British historian Marko Attila Hoare noted:
Quote: “Not a single respectable work of scholarship has been produced by any member of this political category in the West, though they have produced an enormous quantity of what can most charitably be described as extended political tracts, based...largely on other political tracts by other Balkan genocide deniers.... the ‘anti-war’ people in the West write propaganda rather than history about the Balkans; necessarily so, since they believe Yugoslavia was destroyed by a Western or German imperialist conspiracy, and this is not a viewpoint that anyone who actually does research on the subject can sustain. The average MPhil student here at Cambridge would be embarrassed to produce the sort of rubbish churned out by Michael Parenti, Diane Johnstone, Kate Hudson and other ill-informed genocide deniers, whose sole purpose is to confirm other lefties in their anti-Western prejudices.” End Quote (Srebrenica and the London Bombings: The ‘Anti-War’ Link)
The one of the saddest activism by this ‘Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ is the denial and manipulation of Srebrenica genocide. Even though more than 6000 bodies were recovered from Srebrenica’s mass graves and await DNA identification, Serbian propagandists and their revisionist friends hold onto their fictious belief that the number of killed was actually less than 2,500 and that Srebrenica genocide never happened. They even refuse to acknowledge the term Genocide when refering to the Srebrenica massacre and they regularly quote each other in every source they publish (it’s a well established circle of conspiracy theorists drawing opinions from each others’ pre-determined conclusions).
New York - Srebrenica Sisterhood: 7/11 and 9/11
The friendship between the New York and Srebrenica was viewed as a main threat to the twisted nationalist minds running this, so called, ‘Centre for Peace in the Balkans.’ As a result, ‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ voiced its anger against the Srebrenica-New York sisterhood proposal - a symbolic link between Bosnian and American tragedy (9/11 and 6/11). In fact, according to Nikola Rajkovic’s logic published on his web site:
Quote: “Implying that the terror suffered by 9-11 victims in New York is similar to civil war suffering in Srebrenica is factually wrong. As such, a sister-city relationship between New York City and Srebrenica should not be established since it would be an insult to the memory of 9-11 victims.” End Quote
Of course, Nikola Rajkovic and his make-belief “Centre for Peace in the Balkans” fail to grasp that Srebrenica massacre is not just a “civil war suffering” - it’s a genocide. More clearly, it’s a genocide perpetrated by the forces under the command of former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his war-time General Ratko Mladic. Both of these fugitives from justice succeeded in executing planned genocide (read Karadzic’s words) with full logistical support of Serbia. Therefore, Nikola Rajkovic’s hate-inspired statements are insult not only to the victims of 7/11 and 9/11, but also step back for any chance of lasting peace and ethnic reconciliation. As of today, Rajkovic’s “Centre for Peace in the Balkans” still refuses to call for an arrest of indicted Serb war criminals who committed genocide in Srebrenica.
Nikola Rajkovic Fears Serb Children Will Learn About Genocide
The founder of ‘The Centre for Peace in the Balkans’ - Serbian nationalist Nikola Rajkovic - is obsessed with perceived bias of anything “Western” against Serbia. One has to glance over his article, “Serbdom in the 21st Century” (which he published at Serbian Unity Congress web site), to understand the level of his obsession against Western influence on Serbs and Serbia:
Quote: “...the Serbian name and identity has been under a constant media and public relations attack... there is an identifiable group of foreign journalists and foreign policy makers who have built their entire careers on denigrating the Serb name and reputation.... Serbdom will continue to suffer catastrophic consequences... Are the Serbs of Yugoslavia prepared to be made the scapegoats for the wars of the 1990s? ...picking up the local (foreign) newspaper or turning on the television usually means enduring the following headline, Evil Serb convicted of genocide. What kind of effect will such unchallenged propaganda have on Serbian children living abroad? What will Serbian children say when they are asked to identity their heritage? ...the long-term consequences of unchallenged propaganda and racism in foreign languages will be catastrophic to our identity and culture. If you need more proof, just read the foreign newspapers of the last ten years.” End Quote
And again, ‘The Center for Peace in the Balkans’ founder, refuses to challenge his own logic. He plays innocent card by suggesting that he does not understand why his people were in the news and why individuals from his people were accused and convicted of genocide, wide scale massacres, ethnic cleansings and other evils. For him, Serbs and Serbia are pure victims and he is more frustrated about Serb children learning that individual Serb people committed genocide against Bosniaks, than condemning those same crimes of genocide (let alone calling for war criminals hiding in Serbia to be arrested).
Rajkovic is disturbed by “foreign newspapers” for documenting wide scale massacres in Bosnia and Kosovo; these massacres were overhelmingly committed by the Serb (para)-military forces under the leadership of indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic and his indicted partner in crime General Ratko Mladic, both wanted on genocide charges and both fugitives from the international justice. He avoids condemning them or publishing any material criticising Serbs or Serbia.
Recommending Denial of Reality
‘The centre for Peace in the Balkans’ does not hide it’s bias; it recommends links to other web sites containing Srebrenica genocide denial material, and some of them include “Emperor’s Clothes,” “AntiWar,” “CounterPunch,” “ZNet,” “FrontPage Magazine” and sources of fiction and conspiracy.
Five Principles by De La Brosse
The fundamental principles of Serbian propaganda, highlighted by de la Brosse, haven’t changed. Five key principles are:
1. Keep it simple;
2. Project one’s own faults onto the enemy;
3. Use the news to one’s own advantage through exaggeration, distortion and omission;
4. Repeat the message endlesly; rely on myths and (revisionist) history; and
5. Create a national consensus.
The Serbian propaganda has been based on the same techniques as used by Adolf Hitler, with the added power of television and the Internet. To weld the population together, official propaganda draws on the sources of the Serbian mystique, that of a people who are ‘mistreated’ victims and ‘martyrs’ of history and that of Greater Serbia, indissolubly linked to the Orthodox religion and Eastern-Orthodox allies (e.g. Russia, Greece).
This type of propaganda clearly operates as a denial movement whose real aim is to fully absolve Serbia and Serbs of any responsibility for widespread war crimes, ethnic cleansings, and genocide in Srebrenica perpetrated for the sake of unfulfilled “Greater Serbia” dream.
http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/2007/11/centre-for-peace-in-balkans.html
Communist + Anti-catholic propaganda = a winning combination!
Thanks for the tip.
Did a little more digging and found this:
In 1985 Jakov Blazevic, the man who conducted Stepinac’s trial, admitted that the cardinal had been framed.
Kind of changes things a bit don’t you think?
What? Serbia had its own Pavelic? Serbs collaborated with Nazis too? Orthodox clergy helped the Nazis also - and then collaborated as spies for the Communist government after the war?
We'll wait a long time before any of the Milosevic fans on FR admit the truth.
PFL
“After the war, Marshall Tito demanded that Stepinac break with Rome and establish a new “patriotic church.” Stepinac refused. Hence, he was the subject of trumped up charges of collaborating with the Nazis.
The show trial was so farcical that Louis Brier, president of the American Association of Jews, said at the time that “This great man [Stepinac] was tried as a collaborator of Nazism. We protest this slander. He has always been a sincere friend of Jews and was not hiding this even in times of cruel persecution under the regime of Hitler and his followers. He was the greatest defender of the persecuted Jews.”
Further proof that Cardinal Stepinac was not guilty of working with the Nazis came in 1985. That was the year that the man who originally tried him, Jakov Blazevic, admitted publicly that Cardinal Stepinac’s trial was framed from beginning to end and that the only reason he was tried was his refusal to break with the Roman Catholic Church.
It is for these reasons that the Catholic League contacted Rabbi Abraham Cooper, editor-in-chief of Response, asking him to comment on these facts. We also asked him, “Are you similarly quiescent in accepting the convictions of Jewish dissidents, like Natan Sharansky, by Soviet courts?”
http://www.catholicleague.org/slandering-stepinac/
Sainthood is not like the Nobel Peace Prize which is given to any dog that meets the favor of the left. There’s a lot of waiting and research completed before someone is given sainthood to make sure the person is worthy. I have doubts about the legitimacy of the protest.
Matthew 12:36
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Proverbs 10:18 ESV
The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.
1 Peter 3:16
Having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
Psalm 101:5
Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart I will not endure.
James 4:11
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
Proverbs 16:28
A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.
Titus 3:2
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
Luke 6:45
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Matthew 5:11
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
1 Peter 2:1
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
Exodus 20:16
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
1 Corinthians 4:13
When slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
Matthew 7:12
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Proverbs 11:9
With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.
1 Peter 3:10
For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;
Proverbs 20:19
Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.
Exodus 23:1
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.
Mark 7:20-23
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Psalm 109:3
They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
James 1:19-20
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Psalm 50:20
You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.
1 Corinthians 6:10
Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Ephesians 4:31-32
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Proverbs 26:28
A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin.
Proverbs 17:9
Pope Francis: “where there is calumny, there is the devil”
God tells how we respond to calumny. Leave it in God’s hands. His justice is swift.
Romans 12:
Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.i
13
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,j exercise hospitality.
14
* Bless those who persecute [you],k bless and do not curse them.l
15
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.m
16
Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.n
17
Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.o
18
If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.p
19
Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Titus Chapter 3:8
Advice to Titus.* I want you to insist on these points, that those who have believed in God be careful to devote themselves to good works; these are excellent and beneficial to others.g
9
* Avoid foolish arguments, genealogies, rivalries, and quarrels about the law,h for they are useless and futile.
10
After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic,i
11
realizing that such a person is perverted and sinful and stands self-condemned.
It looks like a political canonization to me. A controversial person, his martyrdom is highly questionable. A martyr is someone who was killed for refusal to renounce the faith, in the Stepinac’s case this is not a proven fact.
(1) One does not need to be canonized to be a saint.
(2) Not everyone who is canonized is a martyr - canonization does not equal martyrdom.
A question: why would this canonization be political? Clearly the forces of political correctness are marshaled against it, and there is little political advantage to canonizing a man the mainstream media are bent on demonizing.
Stepinac was an anti-Communist because he was a Christian believer and pastor. He was put on a show trial because he refused to join the Communists in subverting the Church. I suppose this was a political act from a Communist perspective, but from a Christian perspective it was the only thing to do.
2. Stepinac is an icon of the Croatian nationalism, as well as Catholicism is a part of it. Croation nationalists are eager for Stepinac to be canonized, it's issue of their appeasement, which would bring a political gain for Vatican in Croatia. The "PC forces" you mentioned are Serbs, who are Orthodox and are unlikely to convert to Catholicism, so their voices may be ignored.
3. Stepinac supported the Croatian Nazi state which existed during the WWII. While there's no evidence he was responsible for any nazi crimes himself. This makes him a controversial person.
The Orthodox Christian Church usually doesn’t comment on what occurs outside of the One holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. This is clearly one of those times.
I’m bowing out of this discussion
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