Stepanic the Criminal to Be Made a Saint
The Vatican’s intention to make Aloysius Stepanic of Croatia a saint will revive painful memories among the Serbian people. His murderous activities in the early 1940s are well documented. As Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia, he collaborated with the Ustashi in the killing of more than 500 000 Serbs, plus Jews and Gypsies. He also oversaw the forced conversion to Roman Catholicism of 244 000 Serbs.
The Ustashi – a fanatically Roman Catholic, Fascist and terrorist organisation, founded by Ante Pavelitch – had Stepanic as its “supreme military apostolic vicar”, and even had Roman Catholic priests among its officers. In a pastoral letter in 1942, Stepanic said that what was happening in Croatia was “the Lord’s work”. However, he was found guilty in 1946 of high treason and war crimes and sentenced to 16 years in prison. The Vatican, on the other hand, made him a cardinal in 1952.
Those horrendous events in Croatia confirm the old saying that “Rome in the minority is a lamb, Rome as an equal is a fox, Rome in the majority is a tiger”. Behind its present benign facade, generated by the geniality and apparent humility of the present Pope, Rome has not abandoned its centuries-old policy of intolerantly extending its power worldwide, and depriving Protestants of their religious liberty.
That Rome is still intolerant, especially where it is ascendant, is seen in a Christian Solidarity Worldwide report in February: “Twenty-five Protestant families in Unión Juárez, a town of 14 000 in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, had their electricity and water disconnected after they refused to contribute to a Catholic religious festival.”
Protestants are deluded if they do not realise that Rome’s calls to Protestants for unity are based on Rome being in the driving seat. The Pope’s recent statement, “I am yearning that this separation comes to an end . . . And let us pray to the Lord that He unites us all,” sounds good to many, but the reality is, as the French Roman Catholic writer, Louis Veullot, an ardent champion of papal supremacy, frankly said to Protestants, “When you are in a majority we ask for religious liberty in the name of your principles. When we are in a majority we refuse it to you in the name of ours.” “The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going” (Prov 14:15). NMR