Zagreb, March 27, 1998 (IKA) – The March 29 (13/1998) issue of Glas Koncila, the leading Croatian Catholic weekly newspaper, contains an extensive presentation of a new document issued by the Holy See on the Shoah, with reference to contemporary world events and those in Croatia during the Second World War. The editorial emphasizes that this document is not the fruit of political tactics toward contemporary Judaism or a scientific-historical verdict of historical justice but “in the first place for the people of our day, an antidote to the temptations overshadowing mankind … This concerns the never extinguished pagan worship of #!pure blood#! race, nation and country an idolatry currently responsible for discrimination throughout the world, the degradation of people who are in the minority and different from the ruling majority, forced #!humane migrations#! and actual genocides.” In this sense “the Catholic Church speaks about the Holocaust, the great suffering of the Jewish people, as a mysterious sign, not only of Jewish destiny but of all genocide.” The commentator emphasizes that “the actual reason for this new document is the Church#!s terrible and painful memory of the un-Christian behavior of many Christians during the period when Europe was seized by the ferocity of National Socialism and Fascism.” It is asked whether contemporary Catholics are sufficiently alert to the contemporary reawakening of racist, anti-Semitic and other movements. The commentator points out that the experience from the period of the Nazi persecution of the Jews “justifies the fear that at least some Christians of our day are insufficiently alert or courageous when confronted with similar contemporary fallacies.” We know that too many Catholics remained passive when it was necessary to resist Nazi violence against the Jews. “The Roman Catholic Church must now speak more decisively, louder and with greater alarm” than it did then. The editorial further pointed out that in Europe there were two conflicting ungodly ideologies just prior to and at the beginning of the Second World War: Nazism and Bolshevism.
Unfortunately, the Croats fighting for the independence of the Croatian state were divided in such a way that one side, the Ustasha, allied with Hitler, while the other, the Partisans, allied with Stalin. Although Catholic publicists provided copious information, not only on Bolshevist Gulags but the Nazi concentration camps, average Croatian Catholics were far less wary of Nazism than Bolshevist influences. At the time, Bolshevism seemed to be a greater threat to the survival of the Church and people than Nazism.” The new document by the Holy See serves as a warning to Croatian Catholics “not to be caught unawares, and shun new crimes on behalf of the threatened Church and people, despite justified fears, concerns and ostensible ideals.” The commentary concludes that the document “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” is a warning, motivated by painful historical experience, that “humanity cannot permit all that to happen again.”
The same issue of Glas Koncila contains another article entitled “An Indelible Stain on the History of the Century Coming to a Close” by Zivko Kustic, staff editor.
This article provides a detailed presentation of the new document, emphasizing that the Nazi extermination of the Jews, the Holocaust, was the work of the Nazis and the godless, but that the consciences of many Christians were lulled into indifference toward anti-Semitism, “by an attitude of mistrust and hostility toward Jews during the course of many centuries.” It is an urgent task of the contemporary Church in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council to root out all such anti-Semitic attitudes from every level of Catholic society. The commentator particularly emphasizes that the document “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah” pays homage to those Jews who kept their faith, despite many persecutions during the century, “while bearing their unique witness to the Holy One of Israel and the Torah.” Thus, the Catholic Church at the highest level honors those Jews who “according to their consciences were martyrs of so-called Catholic prejudice.” When contemporary Catholics admit all of this and mourn profoundly, they are not assuming some form of collective guilt but accepting a shared responsibility, not only for all the merits but for the sins of the preceding Catholic generations in order to rouse consciences to oppose every contemporary form of discrimination.