CHARGES VATICAN INCITES YUGOSLAV CLERGY, CONSCIOUSLY CREATES CONDITIONS FOR UNDESIRABLE INCIDENTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060272-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 5, 2011
• Sequence Number: 272
• Publication Date: May 3, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060272-2
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED TIF
CENTRAL IN ELLI A NCYF REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
Yugoslavia DATE OF
Political; Sociological - Religion, Catholic INFORMATION 1952
Church, Vatican
Daily newspaper
Zagreb
3 Feb 1952
7110 0000110701101000 111ouAT1o5 00ROn.. CEO NATON4 0101100
of T00 011CE0 IT*TO1 117111 710 0711111 01 -0100.110 ACT 00
I. 0. 0.. OI M0 0,. V ?005000. m Tug10111101 00 0x0 11TILATIOI
or ITS CONCEITS II ANT 000000 To 55 0Imrxoua0 111100 U Ifo?
5111110 b 110. I0R000C005 or 05,0 FOI0 11 1Io511,CEO.
DATE DIST. 3 May 1952
NO. OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
CHARGES VATICAN INCIT S YUGOSLAV CLERGY
CONSCIOUSLY TES CONDITIONS FOR UNDESIRABLE INCIDENTS
The following artiL.le attacking the Vatican's policy toward
Yugoslavia and the activities of the Catholic clergy is typical
of many currently appearing in the Yugoslav press.
The undesirable incident in Novo Mjesto, when the citizenry demonstrated
their displeasure against the reactionary activities of the clergy and slightly
injured a representative of Bishop Anton Vovk of Ljubljana, was welcomed by
the Vatican as cause for a new campaign of hatred against Yugoslavia. The
Oseervatore Romano, organ of the Vatican, garnished the incident with a series
of fabricated details and transformed Vovk into a griev:iusly wounded martyr,
the victim of a planned attempt to destroy the Catholic religion in Yugoslavia.
The Vatican radio joined the Osservatore Romano in this attack, and was
followed by the entire Italian press.
These attacks of the Vatican represent an integral part of a systematic
anti-Yugoslav offensive which has been intensified since 1948. The Vatican
diplomats and political strategists and their Italian associates consider that
they very cunningly chose the opportune moment, when Yugoslavia is being
subjected to strong aggressive pressure from the East.
The Vatican uses lies, intrigues, and. insinuations, combining them with
open incitement of the Catholic clergy to ork against the Yugoslav people.
There are some indications that the subversive activities of the Catholic
clergy in Yugoslavia have increased since Megr Silvije Oddi was named Papal
Nuncio. When some Slovenian priests asked Monsignor Oddi why their cooperation
with the people's government was not desirable, he replied that they must fight
against the government, that it was impossible to cooperate with it, and to
remember that no agreement or compromise was possible. 41'
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The following incidents during the past 9 months illustrate the results
of the Vatican incitement of the Catholic clergy.
During a church ceremony in Ptuj, the Yugoslav national flag was torn and
a group of priests attempted to transform the church ceremony inti a political
demonstration. At Jursinci near Maribor, a group of worshipers stripped the
five-pointed star from the flag at the instigation of Paai,or Franc Veselic,
and then the Maribor bishop blessed the flag. Father Grakovic put up a
starless flag on his church in Dugi Otok. Father Crnkovic from Bjelovar
warned that a war was coming, and that not a single. Communist would survive
it. A group of theology students from the Zagreb Seminary formed a Ustashi
terrorist group, ar4 with the knowledge and protection of the head of the
seminary, held public gatherings at which Ustashi speeches were read and the
picture of Pavelic displayed. A White Guard group organized at the Ljubljana
Seminary issued a secret Fascist periodical entitled Med Nami (Between Us)
or 7.lomskove Drobitnice (Breakable Pieces). In Senj, Pastor Dusko Zorec
publicly defended Artukovic. Some priests in Bjelovar proclaimed Pavelic
and Artukovic great men and r eat politicians. Pastor Marusic, of Susrrtin
in Brec Island, chased Friar Jurjevic out of his home because he had joined
the People's Front. Father Emilije Muzic in Losinj referred to Yugoslav
solitern ne wild men. A -spy center, equipped with the most modern equipment
for transmitting oded messages, was discovered among the Franciscan Fathers
in Pula and the D-minican Fathers in Daili.
Many other priests are using the pulpit, the confessional, and even
burial services for their base political ?urposes. They are not concerned
with religion or the church, but desire wide political influence over the
people according to directives they receive from the Vatican.
The Vatican is conducting a planned policy to strain relations with
Yugoslavia, and is employing all its authority to compel individual priests
to make provocative attacks and engage in activities against the people.
Individual conflicts and incidents, such as the Bishop Vovk affair, are a
direct result of such policies and activities. The increasingly unfriendly
and reactionary activities of the Catholic clergy are provoking rebellion
among the people, and reviving memories of the active part a considerable
number of the clergy took in aiding the occupation forces and informing
against the people's soldiers. These factors played an especially important
part in the Vovk affair..
At the time of Bishop Vovk's arrival at the railroad station in Novo
Mjesto, many people gathered demanding that he return to Ljubljana. This was
his first visit to Novo Mjesto since 1941, when members of the Catholic clergy,
appealed to by the war criminal Bishop Roxman, informed against 100 inhabitants
of Novo Mjesto to the occupation forces. One woman who had had two brothers
shot at that time was the first to demand that Bishop Vovk leave. She was
joined by an elderly man whose sons had been killed. Others present had
suffered similar personal tragedies. Because of prompt and energetic inter-
vention by the. people's government, Bishop Vovk sustained only slight injuries
in the melee. Ivan Tavcar, ensign in the People's Militia, took Bishop Vovk
under guard and also received slight injuries. The inhabitants of Novo Mjesto
were also prompted to this demonstration by the recent activities of a group
of White Guardists, including a Catholic priest named Sara;,. Siraj is re-
sponsible for the death of four inhabitants of Novo Mjesto, and the internment
of nine others whom he denounced to the occupation forces.
Although the people's revolt against the traitorous actions of many
members of the Catholic clergy during World War II has not yet subsided, the
Vatican is again inciting Catholic priests to work against the people. The
Catholic Church in Yugoslavia is thus consciously creating cc ?itions for such
incidents and is responsible for them.
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It appears that the Vatican is avoiding consolidating relations between
the Catholic Church and the state in Yugoslavia. 'ithough Yugoslavia is not redomi
the claims asnCaatholics are c without ation, faand ith, the of taousands of government t has egone to t then
utmost limit in its policy of tolerance toward the Catholic Church. In the
meantime, the Vatican is making impossible the creation of a modus vivendi,
and desires nothing lees than a change in the Yugoslav Constitution; it also
wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia and to force its
x111 upon the people.
The Vatican is hampered because the church and state are separated in
Yugoslavia, although this is also true in the US, France, Sweden, etc.
The Vatican demands compulsory religious education in the schools, yet
such religious training can be based only on the free choice of parents,
without pressure being brought to bear from any side.
The Vatican sides with all convicted priests, war criminals, and traitors,
and regards the prosecution of traitors as persecution of religion and the
church. It insists that not one convicted priest-traitor is guilty. In the
meantime, its bloody friends and associates, the fascist and Ustashi criminals,
are being helped with money and documents and being sent to Argentina under
its protection. Now representatives of the Catholic clergy in Yugoslavia are
again proclaiming these criminals great men.
In their tolerance of the Catholic Church, the Yugoslav authorities have
gone no far as to release Stepinac, who can never be morally rehabilitated
because of his attitude during the occupation and collaboration with the
occupation forces. The Vatican replied to Stepinac'a release with new abuse.
It is recommended that those responsible in the Vatican heed the advice given
in an article by Allessandrin in the Osservatore Romano which was written
because of the Bishop Vovk incident. The cl -stated that the Catholic
conscience and feeling of all free peoples will not remain indifferent to
facts which disclose a method of thinking diametrically opposed to the human
conscience.
It appears that the Vatican has forgotten about the human conscience.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/06: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060272-2