Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše covers the role of the Croatian Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi puppet state created on the territory of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia in 1941.
Background
For centuries, Croatia had been a part of the Habsburg Empire. A variety of ethnic groups have long existed in the region, and there has been a strong correlation between ethnic identity and religious affiliation, with Croats being mainly Catholic, and more Western-oriented, while the Serbs are Eastern Orthodox.
Following the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire at the close of World War I, the desire of Croatian nationalists for independence was not realised, and the region found itself first in the Serb-dominated Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then in the equally Serb-dominated dictatorship of Yugoslavia established by King Alexander in 1929. Internal borders were redrawn dividing historical Croatia into several provinces. Political repression bred extremism, and the "Ustaša" ("Insurgence") was formed in 1929 by Ante Pavelić, with the support of Fascist Italy. In 1934, King Alexander was assassinated by a Bulgarian gunman, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a radical group seeking independence, allied with the Croatian Ustaše group led by Pavelić.Moll, Nicolas (2012). "Kampf gegen den Terror" [Fight against the Terror]. Damals (in German). No. 6. pp. 72–77. The new Regent Prince, Paul Karadjordjević, was convinced by the success of Vladko Maček's more moderate Croatian Peasant's Party at 1938 elections to grant further autonomy to Croatia.
On 6 April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece.Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy; Collins: London (1986), p. 147 In their military campaign, the Axis forces exploited ethnic divisions in Yugoslavia, and presented themselves as liberators of the Croats. The then-victorious Axis powers set up a puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH), which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the parts of Dalmatia not annexed to Italy. Deputy prime minister Maček refused to collaborate in a puppet government, and Pavelić's Ustaše was installed in power. In Pavelić, Hitler found an ally.
Initially there was enthusiasm for Croatian independence, but the state was in fact under occupation by the German and Italian armies, while the Ustaša commenced a ruthless persecution of Serbs, Jews, Roma and dissident Croats and Bosnian Muslims. Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac of Zagreb welcomed Croat independence in 1941, but subsequently condemned Croat atrocities against both Serbs and Jews, and involved himself in personally saving Jews. The Pavelić government intended to rid Croatia of its Eastern Orthodox Serb minority in three ways: forcible conversion (1/3), deportation (1/3) and murder (1/3). From around 217,00 to 500,000 people (although the exact number is impossible to ascertain and is disputed by different sides) were killed by the Ustaša, both in massacres and at concentration camps, most infamously the one at Jasenovac. Most of the victims were Serbs, but Jews, Roma and dissident Croats and Bosnian Muslims were also targeted.
Independent State of Croatia Creation and recognition Ante Pavelić, the head of the Ustaša, was anti-Serb and viewed Catholicism as an integral part of Croat culture. Historian Michael Phayer wrote that for the Ustaša, "relations with the Vatican were as important as relations with Germany" as Vatican recognition was the key to widespread Croat support. The creation of the Independent State of Croatia was welcomed by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and by many Catholic priests. Archbishop Stepinac supported Croatia's independence from the Serb-dominated Yugoslav state and arranged an audience with Pius XII for Pavelić.
Author Peter Hebblethwaite wrote that Pavelić was anxious to get diplomatic relations and a Vatican blessing for the new "Catholic state" but that "Neither was forthcoming". Giovanni Montini (the future Pope Paul VI) advised Pavelić that the Holy See could not recognize frontiers changed by force. The Yugoslav royal legation remained at the Vatican. When the King of Italy averred that the Duke of Spoleto was to be "King of Croatia", Montini advised that the Pope could not hold a private audience with the Duke once any such coronation occurred.
Pavelić audience Pavelić visited Rome on 18 May 1941 to sign a treaty with Mussolini granting Italy control over several Croatian cities and districts on the Dalmatian coast.Cornwell, 1999, p. 252. While in Rome, Pius subsequently relented, allowing a half-hour private audience with Pavelić in May 1941.Hebblethwaite, Peter. Paul VI, the First Modern Pope; Harper Collins Religious; 1993; pp. 153–57, 210-11 In the 1831 papal bull Sollicitudo Ecclesiarum, Pope Gregory XVI had drawn a clear distinction between de facto recognition and de jure, saying that the church would negotiate with de facto governments, but that was not an endorsement of either their legitimacy or policies.Duffy, Eamon. Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes, Yale University Press, 2014, p. 285 Soon afterwards, Abbot Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone was appointed apostolic legate to Zagreb. The minutes of a meeting, taken by Vatican Under Secretary of State Montini (later Pope Paul VI), noted that no recognition of the new state could come before a peace treaty and that "the Holy See must be impartial; it must think of all; there are Catholics on all sides to whom the [Holy See] must be respectful." Phayer wrote that just after becoming dictator of Croatia and "after receiving a papal blessing in 1941, Ante Pavelić and his Ustaša lieutenants unleashed an unspeakable genocide in their new country."
Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone The Vatican refused formal recognition but neither did it cut diplomatic relations with the NDH, preferring to work diplomatically to end Ustaša terror.Sánchez, José M., Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy, CUA Press, 2002, p. 20 In 1941, Pius XII did not send a nuncio, or diplomatic representative, but an apostolic visitor, Benedictine abbot Dom Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone, as representative to the Croatian Catholic Church, rather than the government. Phayer wrote that this suited Pavelić well enough.
Marcone reported to Rome on the deteriorating conditions for Croatian Jews, made representations on behalf of the Jews to Croatian officials, and transported Jewish children to safety in neutral Turkey.Papers of Apostolic Visitor Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone , news.va; accessed 27 February 2014.
The Vatican used Marcone, together with Archbishop Stepinac of Zagreb, to pressure the Pavelić government to cease its facilitation of race murders. When deportation of Croatian Jews began, Stepinac and Marcone protested to Andrija Artuković. In his study of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert wrote: "In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, as a result of intervention by [Marcone] on behalf of Jewish partners in mixed marriages, a thousand Croat Jews survived the war."
The Pope met with Pavelić again in 1943. Pius was criticized for his reception of Pavelić: an unattributed British Foreign Office memo on the subject described Pius XII as "the greatest moral coward of our age."Mark Aarons and John Loftus, Unholy Trinity, pp. 71–72 For their part, wrote Phayer, the Vatican hoped the Ustaša would defeat communism in Croatia and that many of the 200,000 who had left the Catholic Church for the Serbian Orthodox Church since World War I would return to the fold.
Clergy involved in Ustaše violence Mark Biondich notes that "[T]he younger generation of radical Catholics, particularly those of the crusader organisation, supported the Ustaša with considerable enthusiasm, while the older generation of Croat Populists [HSS] was more reserved and in some cases overtly hostile." This generational gap between conservative and radical Catholic priests was further reflected by region (urban vs rural), the geographical location of churches and bishoprics, and an individual priest's relative place within the Church hierarchy. More senior clerics generally disassociated themselves from the NDH. They were also divided by religious orders. The Franciscans, who had resisted for over fifty years Vatican efforts to turn over parishes to secular clergy, were far more prominently associated with the Ustaša than were the Salesians.
Mass murder occurred through the summer and autumn of 1941. The first Croatian concentration camp was opened at the end of April 1941, and in June a law was passed to establish a network across the country, in order to exterminate ethnic and religious minorities.Evans, Richard J., The Third Reich at War, Penguin Press; New York 2009, pp. 158-59 According to writer Richard Evans, atrocities at the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp were "egged on by some Franciscan friars". Phayer wrote that it is well known that many Catholic clerics participated directly or indirectly in Ustaša campaigns of violence, as is attested in the work of Corrado Zoli (Italian) and Evelyn Waugh (British), both Roman Catholics themselves; Waugh by conversion.
The Croatian Franciscans were heavily involved in the Ustaše regime. A particularly notorious example was the Franciscan friar Tomislav Filipović, also known as Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović, known as "Fra Sotona" ("Friar Satan"), "the devil of Jasenovac", for running the Jasenovac concentration camp, where most estimates put the number of people killed at approximately 100,000. According to Evans, Filipović led murder squads at Jasenovac. According to the Jasenovac Memorial Site, "Because of his participation in the mass murders in February 1942 the church authorities excommunicated him from the Franciscan order, which was confirmed by the Holy See in July 1942.""Miroslav Filipović-Majstorović" , Jasenovac Memorial website; accessed 14 February 2016. He was also required to relinquish the right to his religious name, Tomislav. When he was hanged for war crimes, however, he wore his clerical garb.Krišto, Jure. Katolička crkva i Nezavisna Država Hrvatska 1941–1945, Zagreb (1998), p. 223
Ivan Šarić, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vrhbosna in Sarajevo, supported the Ustaša, in particular the forcible conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Roman Catholicism. His diocesan newspaper wrote: "[T]here is a limit to love. The movement of liberation of the world from the Jews is a movement for the renewal of human dignity. Omniscient and omnipotent God stands behind this movement." Šarić appropriated Jewish property for his own use, but was never legally charged. Some priests served in the personal bodyguard of Pavelić, including Ivan Guberina, a leader of the Croatian Catholic movement, a form of Catholic Action. Another priest, Božidar Bralo, served as chief of the security police in Sarajevo, who initiated many anti-Semitic actions.
To consolidate Ustaša party power, much of the party work in Bosnia and Herzegovina was put in the hands of Catholic priests by Jure Francetić, an Ustaše Commissioner of this province.Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration, p. 490, Stanford University Press (2001); , One priest, Mate Mugos, wrote that clergy should put down the prayer book and take up the revolver. Another cleric, Dionysius Juričev, wrote in the Novi list that to kill children at least seven years of age was not a sin. Phayer argues that "establishing the fact of genocide in Croatia prior to the Holocaust carries great historical weight for our study because Catholics were the perpetrators and not, as in Poland, the victims."