REQUEST OF WIESENTHAL CENTRE IS UNSEEMLY - RADIC

( Editorial: --> 3354 ) SPLIT, Sept 26 (Hina) - Chairman of the Croatian State Welcoming Committee for Pope John Paul II, Jure Radic, on Saturday described the request of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre that the Vatican should postpone the beatification of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, as unseemly. The Paris-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre asked Pope John Paul II to postpone the beatification of this Croatian cardinal until independent historians have conducted a thorough research about the actions of Cardinal Stepinac during World War II. "The Church has its standards and its conduct. Beatification is not a secular procedure, but a procedure established through thousands of examples and tested for two thousand years. I hold it as unseemly to try and place oneself above this procedure," Radic said in Split. He added that he, personally, and as a faithful, is insulted by such a request by anybody questioning the holiness of Cardinal Stepinac who is the model and pivot of faith for the Croatian people. Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960) was the leading person of the Catholic Church in Croatia during World War II. After the war, Communist authorities rigged a trial in 1996 and convicted Stepinac for collaborating with the Ustasha regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945), although he publicly denounced criminal acts of the Ustasha regime and actively helped provide sanctuary for those persecuted. Subsequently, Stepinac spent five years in prison and nine years under house arrest until he died. (hina) lml 261721 MET sep 98