SIMUN SITO CORIC LAUNCHED NEW BOOKLET ON CARDINAL STEPINAC

( Editorial: --> 1968 ) ZAGREB, Sept 21 (Hina) - The Croatian Information Centre and the Croatian World Congress have published a booklet by Simun Sito Coric, giving basic information about the late Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, his persona and work. The book has been published in Croatian, English, Spanish, Italian, French and German. The author analyses the basic relations during the period of Cardinal Stepinac's work, and adds Stepinac's main theses and actions that had built a kind of shield around the Cardinal against dictatorships: Nazism, Fascism and Communism. The booklet is divided into five chapters, the first about the times of Nazism, Fascism and Communism, the second about the frameworks for an autobiography, the third consists of the late Zagreb Archbishop's speech in court, the fourth excerpts from Cardinal Stepinac's statements and statements of others about him, and the fifth is a source of books published about Cardinal Stepinac. The Croatian Information Centre and Croatian World Congress hope the booklet will be used by foreign newspapers, politicians and interested foreign parties, to obtain information about Cardinal Stepinac, who will be beatified on October 3, during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Croatia. Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960) was the leading person of the Catholic Church in Croatia during World War II. After the war, Communist authorities, in an arranged trial, charged Stepinac with collaborating with the Ustasha regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945) in 1946, 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. Coric is a Croatian writer living in Switzerland. Coric is the president of the Croatian World Congress, which gathers all organisations of the Croatian diaspora. (hina) lml /mbr 211706 MET sep 98