Jastrebarsko, (IKA) – On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the birth and 10th anniversary of the beatification of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the City Museum in Jastrebarsko and the Postulature for the Canonization of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac of Zagreb prepared an exhibition entitled “The Blessed Alojzije Stepinac and the City of Jastrebarsko,” which was opened to the public on Friday, May 23, at the City Museum in Jastrebarsko. For this occasion, Dr. Juraj Batelja, postulator for the canonization of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, prepared a book entitled The Blessed Alojzije Stepinac and the City of Jastrebarsko. Eucharistic Congress in 1939 and a Visit to Wartime Orphans in 1943.
This exhibition of photographs testifying to the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac’s ties to the Jastrebarsko region, of which the majority are being seen by the public for the first time, was opened by Bishop Josip Mrzljak of Varaždin, who on this occasion expressed gratitude that the Church “went out the sacristy,” this project was implemented in cooperation with the city of Jastrebarsko and the exhibition was held on municipal premises. He urged those present not to forget the recent past and to correct all injustices and slanders that were inflicted upon the Croatian nation. The exhibition photographs are from the collections of the postulature and the custodian of the Mirko Škrabe Museum.
The exhibit and commemorative book testify to the superhuman efforts by the nuns, Cartitas of the Zagreb Archdiocese and Archbishop Stepinac to save war orphans, the majority of whom were from the camps in Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška. The book documents the arrival of the children, their condition, the care they received from physicians and nuns, and the partisan violence inflicted upon the children and the orphanage property.
Based upon the archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia, the archives of individual religious communities and the testimonies of witnesses, the author of the book, Dr. Juraj Batelja, refutes the slanders made during the communist regime in Yugoslavia against Catholic nuns, Archbishop Stepinac and the Catholic Church. The author also presents testimonies about the victims who were killed in Jasenovac after May 8, 1945, the official end of the war, among whom the largest number were members of the Croatian military forces who voluntarily surrendered at the Bleiburg field.
Dr. Josip Jurčević and others spoke about the historical context of the life of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and the contents of the book. Dr. Juraj Batelja emphasized that in 1942 the orphanage in Jastrebarsko received approximately three thousand children suffering from the effects of the war, hunger and various illnesses, of whom the majority were saved owing to the efforts of the nuns and Archbishop Stepinac of Zagreb, whom the communists, as he said, falsely accused of various crimes. For comparison, he presented the numbers of the orphanages in Sisak, to which during that same year almost two and a half thousand children were brought, of whom 75% died because they were left to their own devices.
The musical portion of the program consisted of a performance by the choir of the parish of St. Nicholas in Jastrebarsko.