Excerpts from: National Catholic Reporter

08 October, 1993 ......... pages 10-12.

By Tim McCarthy (NCR "Special Report Writer")

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ZAGREB, Croatia -- In front of the Zagreb railroad station is an imposing equestrian statue of Tomislav, the 10th century warrior king who wrested the Croats free from Byzantine rule. The bronze sculpture is powerful, invincible, and the king is wielding a cross. It could as well symbolize the militant Catholicism that dominates Croatia today. .

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Unfortunately, the Croatian Catholic mentality is much closer to that of

than to Strossmayer.

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It was on his [Cardinal Stepinac] watch that right-wing zealots

[ USTASHI / USTASHA ], including a good many Franciscan priests,

Other Serbs were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism.

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Therefore the "Holy See / Vicar of Christ" found archbishop Stepinac's

"pastoral shepherding" of his Croatian flock to be worthy of reward.

From ............ National Catholic Reporter

15 October 1993 ............. page 25.

begin quote-

In your Sept.17 editorial on "exYugoslavia" you say, 'Surely, we have

no difficulty discerning which side we should have taken in 1943.'

We -- by which I mean the Vatican -- did have difficulty.

In fact, Pius XII backed the Catholic Ustasha during the war

and after the war hid Croatians who were wanted for genocide.

-- Michael Phayer ......... Milwaukee, Wis.

Phayer is a professor of history at Marquette University.

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