The editorial in the weekly's latest issue also links Del Ponte's statement with what it calls a campaign aimed at discrediting Catholicism and the Catholic Church in the present-day Croatia, Europe and the world.
In the editorial, headlined "Time for Soberness", editor-in-chief Ivan Miklenic says that Del Ponte's interview is just the tip of the iceberg hiding forces fostering "strong anti-Catholic and anti-Croatian sentiment".
Miklenic writes that "representatives of anti-Catholic forces in the Croatian media" use the case to lecture the Catholic Church in Croatia while accusing it of "extreme nationalism" and claiming that "collusion of religion and national exclusiveness" are at work.
Carla del Ponte said in the interview with The Daily Telegraph on-line edition last Tuesday that "the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican hierarchy can establish in a matter of days the whereabouts of Hague tribunal fugitive Ante Gotovina, because he is hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia, but they do not want to do it".
Del Ponte said she had informed the Vatican about her findings, but that the Vatican refused to cooperate.