USTASHA LEADERS DID NOT HAVE TIES WITH PAPAL INSTITUTE - LACKOVIC &

( Editorial: --> 1557 ) ZAGREB, June 16 (Hina) - Msgr Stjepan Lackovic, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac's secretary from 1941 to 1945, on Tuesday said that the Papal Institute of St Jerome was a shelter for refugees through the centuries and did not look at politics or ideological differences, but on poverty and human despair. "The leaders of the Ustasha regime (Independent State of Croatia - NDH - 1941 to 1945) did not have any ties with the Institute. During my stay at the Institute, I did not meet such persons there. I only met priests and lay persons, who were homeless and needy, including Croatian artists Ivan Mestrovic and Jozo Kljakovic," said Lackovic following a statement the United States Under Secretary Stuart Eizenstat made in Jerusalem Monday. Eizenstat said that the Papal Institute of St Jerome in Rome gave shelter to leaders of the Croatian Ustasha regime following the end of the war in Europe and helped them to flee to South America. He claimed it would be helpful to find out what kind of relations there were between the Papal Institute and the Vatican. "Refugees came to the St Jerome Institute and it dealt with them separately. The Vatican had nothing to do with that," said Lackovic. Lackovic was at St Jerome's from July 1945 to August 1946 and then he went to the US because Yugoslav authorities took away his visa during his Rome visit. Msgr Djuro Koksa, a retired Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb, also commented Eizenstat's statement. "The Institute respected the Vatican's ordinances and was not a shelter for Ustasha leaders (...) We assisted the poor of all nations, including Jews. But that we gave shelter to NDH leaders and helped them flee to South America, that is not true, as we did not," said Koksa. Koksa was at St Jerome's in Rome from 1942 as a student and from 1959 as the Institute's chancellor. Eizenstat's claims were also refuted by Mostar Bishop Ratko Peric, who was a chancellor of the Institute. Referring to Eizenstat's remarks that it would be helpful to find out what kind of relations existed between the Papal Institute and the Vatican, Peric said: "Relations between the St Jerome Institute and the Holy See are defined in the Institute's Statutes 'Slavorum Gentem' of 1901 (...) The St Jerome Institute is an establishment for student priests whom Croatian bishops send on specialisation to papal universities in Rome. From the start of the century, priests including leaders and students, have been exclusively residing at the Institute. This was also the case during the war, after the war, and today". "Given that the administration and students did not provide shelter in the Institute, the Holy See did not have to undertake anything in relation to that Institute," said Peric. "Did any of the priests who were studying at the Institute help one of his people with charity if they knocked on the doors of the Institute, surely they did if they could," said Peric. Peric wondered whether raking the Institute (which has only carried the papal title since 1971) through the media compromised the Holy See "during the time when the Catholic Church in the Croatian people is preparing to welcome the Holy Father for the third time". (hina) jn bag/ha 161715 MET jun 98