FEATURE - OLD TESTIMONIES PRAISE STEPINAC AS DEFENDER OF FREEDOM

( Editorial: --> 3644 ) ZAGREB, Sept 28 (Hina) - In five days the late Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac will join the Catholic Church's most venerated figures when Pope John Paul II will declare the former Zagreb Archbishop blessed. His beatification will be a historic event in contemporary times, but Stepinac was already the focus of world attention more than 50 years ago, during his trial by the Communists. Even during that most difficult period of his life, Stepinac had received much support from the free world that went beyond the Church and established him as a defender of freedom. Stepinac's arrest and trial, carried out in 1946 by the former Yugoslav Communist authorities, resulted in immediate debates and harsh condemnations. The press at the time carried numerous features. The issue was discussed at the British House of Commons and the Irish parliament in Dublin made a protest, while particularly harsh reactions came from European intellectuals and writers, Catholic bishops, pastors, and others. The entire documentation was published in "Stepinac mu je ime" ("Stepinac Is His Name"), a collection of memoirs, testimonies and documents published in 1991 by Krscanska Sadasnjost. Winston Churchill told the British parliament on November 1, 1946 that the circumstances of Stepinac's trial and sentence had caused widespread sorrow. Author Francois Mauriac, a member of the French Academy, wrote in "Le Figaro" on November 2, 1946 that claims about Stepinac's collaboration with and assistance to the Ustasha were false. On the contrary, Nobel winner Mauriac wrote that Stepinac never stopped opposing the Ustasha. He publicly opposed the killing of hostages and persecution of Jews. According to historian Arnold J. Toynbee's 1953/54 monograph "The Realignment of Europe", Stepinac had been accused of being responsible for "crimes", whereas existing evidence showed he had saved many lives. Stepinac's relations with Ante Pavelic (head of the 1941-1945 Independent State of Croatia) had been interpreted in many ways and arbitrarily, and thanks to the Communists, the worst interpretations from the trial prevailed, Toynbee wrote. American Jewish leader and head of the "American Jewish Committee" programme, Louis S. Breir, said on October 13, 1946 that Stepinac was a great man of the Church, who had been accused of being a Nazi collaborator. Breir said the Jews denied that and knew that from 1934 onwards Stepinac had been a genuine friend of the Jews, at that time the victims of persecution by Hitler and his servants. Stepinac was one of the few in Europe to rise against Nazi tyranny at a time when that was a dangerous thing to do. A victim of a shameful trial, Stepinac openly and fearlessly spoke against the racist Nuremberg legislation during the Nazi regime, and his opposition to Nazi terror had never yielded, Breir said. According to Breir, Archbishop Stepinac had been the best advocate of persecuted Jews in Europe after Pope Pius XII. New York's "The New Leader" wrote on October 12, 1946 that when the Nazis occupied Croatia, Stepinac had risked his life to help the Jews. According to the paper, Stepinac had succeeded in having the order for Jews to wear yellow insignia revoked, condemned the Nazi racial law, cooperated with the international Red Cross to save Jews in other countries, and hid Jews under his own roof, a practice also carried out by many of his priests. "The New York Times" assessed that the Stepinac trial had been a purely political process with a pre-determined sentence. Stepinac has been tried and will be imprisoned as part of a campaign against his Church which is guilty of being an enemy of Communism, the paper had written. Ante Sumanovic told the "Neue Zuerische Zeitung" on November 20, 1947 about how in 1941 the Ustasha imprisoned him and Serb Orthodox bishop Dositej, who told him that Stepinac had pleaded on Dositej's behalf more than a brother could have done. The bishop told Sumanovic that it was Stepinac's energetic attitude which prevented the Ustasha from setting fire to and demolishing the Orthodox church in Zagreb. Thanks to Stepinac, the bishop was transferred to Serbia three days later, while Sumanovic was taken to the Danica concentration camp shortly afterwards. Marc Petrovic wrote in "La Croix" on February 17, 1955 that Stepinac's open and clear condemnation of the Ustasha and their excesses was certain. A strong person, Stepinac would always clearly state his opinion and his criticisms, in relation to both Pavelic and Tito, or the King himself, Petrovic had written. (hina) ha jn/mbr 281605 MET sep 98