Vatican, March 14, 1999 (IKA) – A monograph about the recently beatified Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, entitled A Heroic Life as Witnessed by Fellow Victims of Persecution under Communist Yugoslavia, was presented on March 8 at the Old Synod Auditorium of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The author of this monograph is Giampaolo Mattei, a journalist with the semiofficial Vatican daily, L#!Osservatore Romano. Prof. Mario Agnes, director of L#!Osservatore Romano, greeted those assembled. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state of the Holy See, and Cardinal Franjo Kuharić, retired archbishop of Zagreb, spoke about the book and the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac.
Cardinal Kuharić praised the author#!s ability to condense testimonies by the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac#!s contemporaries who had witnessed his acts and sufferings, including popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops, as well as several high communist officials who denounced the entire indictment, so that “the entire book becomes a document supporting the innocence of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, refuting all the slander and false accusations … The book is a response to all who challenged his beatification, because they had been swayed by incessant political propaganda. Many believed this propaganda because they were not acquainted with the specific situation, and many accepted the indictment due to their ideological orientation, without respect for the truth or justice,” stated Cardinal Kuharić. The cardinal remarked that this book will help all people of good will to learn the truth, including some Catholic editorial boards whose publications on the occasion of the beatification issued articles calling Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac a #!controversial#! figure from tempestuous times, so that the beatification itself was #!controversial.#! One of the reasons for such an attitude is that the indictment was constantly used as propaganda, while the defense was compelled to remain silent for decades, noted Cardinal Kuharić. He also referred to Pope John Paul II#!s statements about Cardinal Stepinac made during his pastoral visits to Croatia, and some interesting facts in connection with the collection of the material for the beatification process. During the 17-year process leading to the beatification of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, approximately 38,000 pages of documentation and testimony were assembled, the postulator examined 130 archives, and several participants in the process of the imprisonment of the Blessed Alojzije were interrogated.
Since this was also the first day of an official visit by the Croatian bishops to the Holy See, besides many distinguished dignitaries, all the members of the Croatian Conference of Bishops attended the book presentation.
A detailed report on the monograph was published the following day, March 9, in Avvenire, an Italian Catholic daily, entitled “Stepinac, History Cannot Remain Silent.” Avvenire noted that a “black legend” had been spread to malign the reputation of Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, quoting the secretary of state of the Holy See, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who presided at the book presentation. Noting that this “evil formula of persecution” is not surprising to anyone, Cardinal Sodano added that “neither are the slanders directed against the Servant of God Pope Pius XII surprising that began after the Second World War, which ignore the historical facts and even twist them.” According to Cardinal Sodano, the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac was “a fearless shepherd, a genuine defender of the Catholic Church and his homeland.” Cardinal Sodano presented a brief biography of this martyr of the 20th century who was “persecuted by fascists, Nazis and communists.”
Newspapers also quote remarks by the director of L#!Osservatore Romano, Prof Mario Agnes, who stated that Cardinal Stepinac “demonstrated that holiness is a dimension of history,” and pointed out that this is the first book in the Quaderni series by this Vatican daily to be dedicated to the Pope. “In this way,” added Agnes, “we wanted to show everyone that the Pope inspired this biography in many ways, particularly by a sentence that perhaps that did not attract great general attention.”