SLOVENE CATHOLIC WEEKLY RELEASES SECRET DOCUMENTS ON STEPINAC

( Editorial: --> 4361 ) LJUBLJANA, Sept 30 (Hina) - The latest issue of the Slovene Catholic weekly "Družina" has published excerpts from a German police document dating back to 1941, charging Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac with anti-Nazi attitudes. "Druzina" released the excerpts of secret orders issued by the state security service (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) to German officers just prior to the attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The order noted that the Catholic Church and most especially, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, was amongst anti-German aligned organisations because of their opposition to Nazism. Stepinac is charged with having led an anti-German front together with the Jewish organisations in Zagreb, and with being tied to the British and French intelligence services. The document also refers to the then Bishop of Sarajevo, Saric, in the same light, as well as to Ljubljana Bishop Rozman. Rozman had apparently taken in Polish Primate Hlad in Ljubljana and enabled him to publish a brochure in Slovenian, entitled "The German Crimes in Poland" . The said document was referred to by Slovenian Public State Prosecutor Anton Drobnic at a seminar held recently in Slovenia. According to Bostjan Turk, the author of the Druzina article "In Spite of Nazism and Communism", it is evident from the document that the Germans considered Stepinac and Rozman were not only dangerous because of their "Anglo-philia, sympathy for the Jews and their open opposition to the German aggression", but also because of the moral authority of the Catholic Church, which at the time attracted over six million well-organised faithful. The 1941 document is concerned a great deal more with the Catholic Church than with the Communist movement which is hardly mentioned. The Church received the same amount of attention as the old Yugoslav army. Among other things, the document places Catholic associations in line with central Jewish organisations. (Hina) sp/rml 302206 MET sep 98