The Vatican:

A True Church or A Political Power II

 What is happening today in Kosovo may very well be related to the history of the Balkan which began in 1917 when the Pope's Peace without Victory, in order to save both Germany and Austria-Hungary from defeat, a first attempt was made to strangle a nation as yet unborn; Yugoslavia.

Emperor Charles was advised to transform the Empire into a Federation. In October Charles announced the transformation of the Hapsburg Monarchy into a Federal State. Allies were determined to end for good the rule of the double- headed Austrian eagle.

In 1918 Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs declared their independence. A new independent kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - Yugoslavia - came into being. One third were Catholic

Hatred became the main inspirer of the Vatican's anti-Yugolav strategy. Their objective was the destroy Yugoslavien.

The specific role played by the Vatican followed the familiar pattern: use of the Hierarchy to help political and military plotters engaged in undermining or overthrowing the legal Government. The result was a totalitarian state of Catholicism.

Croatia was declared an independent state in 1941 headed by Ante Pavellic who was the brain behind the

assassination of King Alexander, which preceded the disintegration of Yugoslavia and thus the erection of his super-Nazi, super-Catholic independent Ustashi Croatia. He enjoyed the protection of Pope Pius XII.  

Catholic Archbishop Stepinac, Head of the Croation Hierarchy, welcomed Ante Pavelic's opening of the Ushashi Government in Zagreb, February 23, 1942. Stepinac supported the Ustashi government after Ustashi Croatia collapsed following the disintegration of Nazi Germany.

Archbishop Stepinac was not only the Head of the Council of Croation Bishops and of the Committee which carried out a policy of forcible conversions, he was none other the Supreme Military Apostolic Vicar of the Ustashi Army.

Ante Pavelic, inspirer, creator and leader of the independent Catholic State of Croatia, employed terrorism, political extremism and religious fanaticism ruthlessly.

Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) was a brilliant diplomat.. he steered the German Catholic Party, and top Catholic leaders, to support the Fuehrer. He claimed that the Virgin Mary worked a miracle for him alone. He claimed also that none other than Jesus Christ himself visited and spoke to him.

 This document is a copy of the original dealing with the conversion to the Catholic Church of all Orthodox persons employed by the Government. Issued in Zagreb by the Ministry of Justice and Religion.

Everyone had to be or had to become a Catholic. Refusal meant instant dismissal, loss of property, or arrest. And, very often, all three.

On June 1, 1941, the Ustashi Premier set up an Office of Religious Affairs, in charge of "all matters pertaining to questions connected with the conversions. (Decree No. 11.689)

 Mass executions ensued by the Ushashi in 1941. Victims were executed in groups without trial on bridges and then thrown into the river.

Orthodox worshippers, when not dispatched to concentration camps, often suffered the same fate as their clergy. Congregations, unless willing to change their religion, were not only persecuted, hunted down and arrested; but, at times, besides being massacred by the Ustashi bayonets or machine guns, they were killed within their own churches.

There were instances even when they wre burned alive within them.

(Note: I had a picture of the hangings here but someone got into the website as well as my computer and completely removed it. I could replace it but decided to take God's advice - see below)

 Mass executions ensued by the Ushashi in 1941. Victims were executed in groups without trial on bridges and then thrown into the river....

 To terrorize the population into becoming Catholic, the Ustashi very often hanged lay Orthodox leaders and their Orthodox parish priests during mass executions under the very eyes of the faithful. This was one of the most tangible methods of "persuasion" whenever the Orthodox proved obdurate.

A collection of Catholic newspapers issued in Ushashi Croatia, showed Pavellic's portrait and praised the Ustashi, from the first to the last.

The official organ of the Archbishopric of Zagreb, Katolicki List, No. 16, 1941, declared that Ustashi Croatia had been created by an all powerful Providence. So did Glasnik St. Ante (The Voice of St. Anthony), December 12, 1941: "This is the work of God." The paper Nedelja, June 6, 1941, the organ of the Catholic Crusader movement, declared "Christ and the Ustashi march together."

Franciscans and Jesuits as well as Monks and Friars were the backbone of the policy of forcible conversions. Many participated in acts of terrorism. Father Srecko Peric, of the Gorcia monastery, on August 10, 1941, personally incited the massacre of more than 5,600 Orthodox in the district of Livno.

At the end of April, 1945, the Yugoslav Arm, liberated Croatia and the Ustashi ran for their lives. To avoid a scandal, the Pope, now a pillar of the victorious democracies, required Pavelic to quit Rome.

Three years later (1949) it was proven that the basic Catholic policy emanated directly from the Vatican. Another pillar of the Catholic Church - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary - having planned to otherthrow the Hungarian Government, reckoned on the military intervention of the "right" kind of Allies. Such intervention would have meant general war, and hence the use of atomic bombs. Cardinal Mindszenty had acted on the assumption that the overthrow of the Hungarian Government, with the consequent "restoration of the Hungarian Catholic Monarchy of Hapsburg in its place, could be achieved with help from abroad.. in case a new world war created such a situation. " (The Vatican's Holocaust, by Avro Manhattan 1986)