STEPINAC WAS INNOCENT AND TRIALLED THROUGH HATRED - POSTULATOR

( Editorial: --> 4080 ) ZAGREB, Sept 29 (Hina) - The postulator involved in the Catholic Church declaring Croatia's late Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac as blessed says the process was entirely "theologically founded". "He was wrongly accused and sentenced out of hatred for religion and the Catholic Church. His trial was a de facto trial of the Holy Father," Monsignor Juraj Batelja, advocate of the cause for the beatification and sanctification of Cardinal Stepinac, said in Zagreb on Tuesday. From sizeable documentation, postulator Batelja reiterated all the relevant information on the process of beatifying Croatia's Catholic primate during World War II. Msgr Batelja also spoke about the show trial of Cardinal Stepinac by the Yugoslav Communist authorities and the former Zagreb Archbishop's six-year long imprisonment and house arrest. He especially emphasised Stepinac's intervention on behalf of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies, who were persecuted by the Ustasha regime. Stepinac condemned the persecution of all innocent people and especially of the Jews, who were tried in accordance with fascist racial laws, Msgr Batelja said. In a comment on the often repeated allegation that Stepinac did not protect Jews, Msgr Batelja pointed out that as early as 1936 Stepinac helped with the establishment of a special committee for accepting Jews from Germany and other European countries, guessing what threats they were faced with at the hands of the Nazi regime. He noted that Cardinal Stepinac personally condemned the destruction of the Zagreb synagogue. Cardinal Stepinac never backed the policies of the Ustasha regime and often protested to the Ustasha authorities, especially regarding the persecution of Jews, postulator Batelja said. Pope John Paul II will officially declare Cardinal Stepinac blessed in a ceremony at the shrine of Marija Bistrica, just north of Zagreb, on Saturday as part of his three-day visit to Croatia from October 2 to 4. (Hina) mro jn /mbr 292032 MET sep 98