Hurley’s Report on the Persecution of the Church among the Croats in 1946
We are publishing a report on the persecution of religious freedom in communist Yugoslavia, especially the persecution of the Church among Croats during 1946. The report was compiled by Msgr. Joseph Patrick Hurley (1894–1967), Bishop of St. Augustine (Florida, USA), the Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature in Belgrade, i.e. the first American raised to the rank of nuncio in the history of papal diplomacy. The original was written in English. It covers the period of Bishop Hurley’s first year of serving as papal envoy in Yugoslavia, during which the communist regime brutally and violently cracked down on Catholics and sentenced Archbishop Stepinac to sixteen years imprisonment.
The document is stored in Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Nunziatura in Jugoslavia, box 36, folder 13, copy, ff. 401r–452r: Msgr Joseph Patrick Hurley to Domenico Tardini: A Report on the Religious Situation in Yugoslavia from 1 February 1946 to 1 February 1947, Belgrade, 20 April 1947.
Cover letter to the Report on the Religious Situation in Yugoslavia
Nonciature Apostolique
Belgrade
April 20, 1947.
150/47
To His Excellency,
The Most Rev. Mons. Domenico Tardini
Secretary of the S. C. for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs,
The Vatican
Con allegato Situazione Religiosa in Jugoslavia. Conspectus Generalis.
Your Excellency:
(f. 401r) I have the honor to send you herewith enclosed a general report covering the past year in Yugoslavia from the standpoint of the religious situation.
While this report is of course not exhaustive, it may be found useful as a recapitulation of events here during the period of February 1946 to February 1947. It may serve also to appraise our present position and to explore the possibilities of the future.
If so desired, the Secretariate of the State could have the skeleton of this report filled in with the flesh and blood of individual and detailed reports previously forwarded so as to give a more complete documentation of what has happened in this country. Such a construction might be used eventually as the basis for a white book publication or for any major statement of the Holy See which the developments may call for.
With sentiments of high esteem and of cordial regard, I am, Your Excellency,
Devotedly yours in Christ,
Joseph Patrick Hurley
Bishop of St. Augustine
Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature
A Report on the Religious Situation in Yugoslavia
February 1, 1946 – February 1, 1947
(f. 402r)
Part 1 – The Nunciature page 1
Chapter A – Relations with the Government page 1
Chapter B – Relations with the Diplomatic Corps page 4
Chapter C – Relations with the Hierarchy page 5
Chapter D – Other relations of the Nunciature page 7
Chapter E – General considerations page 8
Part 2 – The Persecution of the Catholic Church page 9
Chapter A – Official attitude of the Government towards the Church page 9
Chapter B – Declarations of the individual communists page 11
Chapter C – The persecution in act page 11
1. Acts Against freedom of worship page 11
2. Acts against freedom of Church administration page 14
3. Freedom of religious teaching page 16
4. Freedom of catholic association page 26
5. Freedom of charitable, social and welfare work page 29
6. Freedom of Ministration to captives and war sufferers page 32
7. Freedom of vocation page 34
8. Freedom of persons: persecutory acts page 38
9. Freedom of property tenure page 41
Part 3 – Persecution of other religious groups page 45
Part 4 – Present state of Catholic Church page 46
Part 5 – The prospect for the future page 48
I. The Nunciature
A. Relations with the Government
(f. 403r) The Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature, Mons. Joseph P. Hurley arrived in Belgrade on January 31, 1946. He presented his credential letters to Marshal Josip Broz Tito on February 8th. The points at issue between the Church and the Yugoslav State were brought into sharp focus on the occasion of this first interview between the Regent and the head of Government.
Marshal Tito immediately launched into a series of charges against the Catholic Bishops and priests in Yugoslavia, accusing many of them of political subversion and of criminal activities. He maintained that there was no persecution of the Church in the country. He said that if the clergy would cooperate with the Government, subsidies would be granted to them. In particular, the Marshal attacked the attitude and activities of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Monsignor Aloysius Stepinac. The purposes of the Government were made clear by the statements of Marshal Tito; although he did not say it in so many words, he expected the Nunciature to approve of the trial and condemnation of the accused Churchmen, and in certain cases to obtain their removal from office. Since the accused Bishops and priests were in most cases men of the highest character, leadership and loyalty to the Church, the Government evidently desired to liquidate them with the help of the Nunciature. In return, the Government offered money – they would pay the Bishops and priests who survived the purge.
In reply, the Regent stated the purposes of the Nunciature. After an exhaustive enumeration of the persecutory measures to which the Church is being subjected, he said that the cessation of these measures would make it possible to examine calmy the charges of the Government. He requested a written documentation of the charges and promised to investigate them. The bait of “Pay to the clergy” was characterized in the supernatural and spiritual.
With the lines thus clearly drawn, the Nunciature began its work. From the start, it was necessary to disarm certain suspicions which existed among our Catholic clergy and people. They were doubtful of the propriety of accrediting a representative of the Holy See to a Communist Government under which they were suffering an acute persecution, and they feared that the Nunciature might follow a policy of appeasement in order to win some formal concessions from the Government. This attitude of our own people increased the delicacy of the position in which the Nunciature found itself.
In order to meet as well as possible all the demands of such a situation, the Nunciature embarked upon a policy towards the Government which was reserved but correct and courteous. It was indeed impossible (f. 404r) to be cordial to a Government which was continuing to kill and imprison Bishops, priests, religious and laypeople, and to despoil the Church of its spiritual and material patrimony. This policy was also in full accord with the instructions which had been given to the Regent by the Secretary of the S.C. for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, Monsignor Domenico Tardini.
In contrast with its cautious and exploratory attitude towards the Government, the Nunciature identified itself with the Yugoslav Bishops in the fullness of that paternal charity which has always characterized the relations of the Sovereign Pontiff with His children in all lands, particularly where they are suffering for the Faith and for Papal Supremacy. In all his contacts with the Bishops – as also with the Government – the Regent has sought to install a calm confidence that the cause of the Church will ultimately triumph, that the sufferings of the moment are but a prelude to a new and glorious era of Christian peace and progress.
The chief activities of the Nunciature during the year were therefore directed towards the realization of the policy outlined above. In so far as the Government is concerned, they were the following:
1. A statistical study of the present condition of the Church
This study was carried out in each of the Dioceses, and the individual reports were forwarded to the Secretariate of State. The investigations made by the Nunciature prove conclusively that the charges against Churchmen, made by Marshal Tito and subsequently presented in writing, have also no basis in fact. With one, or at most two exceptions, no priest was guilty of criminal actions; the known exception had been disciplined by Church authorities and degraded before he committed the crimes in question. For the rest, the only “crimes” of the clergy were that they had been anti-communist, that they had stood up for the rights of the Church, that they had been Croat or Slovene patriots.
2. Appeals to the Government in favour of priests and laymen condemned to death
In no case was favourable action taken on these appeals, with the exception of three of four Sisters of Charity condemned to death at Gospic. The Nunciature did not appeal in favour of the priests who were condemned to terms in prison, for the reason that the Government, in order to discourage appeals, often increased the sentence in such cases. In effect, this policy denies the right of appeal.
3. Efforts on behalf of prisoners of war, civilian deportees and the Volksdeutch of the Voivodina
Repeated requests for information about these people were directed to the Government, offers of assistance, both religious and material were made; but without tangible result, and in most cases even without receiving any answer.
4. Attempts to halt or diminish persecution
Since the policy of the Nunciature was to press for a restitutio in integrum of the position of the Church in Yugoslavia as soon as a good opportunity for negotiations arose, no attempt was made to beg for piecemeal concessions. It was that such a procedure might compromise the chances for a (f. 405r) satisfactory general settlement. Besides, the Nunciature would have had to buy such concessions at a price, and this was precisely what the Government desired. They have been at all times anxious to grant the Church small favours in order to create the impression that the Holy See has acquiesced to their system and is in cordial relations with them. This has been their procedure with the Serbian schismatic Church. The Nunciature has refused to be decoyed into the same position which could have no other effect than to weaken the Church in Yugoslavia.
Nevertheless, occasion has been taken from time to time to insist on the cessation of the persecution. Representations have also been made for the re-opening of those Seminaries which are under occupation by the Government, for proper treatment of clerical prisoners, for religious consolations in the prisons, etc. The basis note of all contacts of the Regent with the Government has been that they must put an end to the persecution.
5. Unreserved and public espousal of the cause of Archbishop Stepinac
Since it was apparent that the very first objective of Communism was to strike at the most important figure in the Catholic Church of Yugoslavia, the Nunciature countered by making it crystal clear to all, Government official and private citizens, Catholics and non-Catholics, that it supported the Archbishop to the full extent of its ability. This support was made known by formal Notes to the Foreign Office, and by solicitude and respect publicly showed to the Archbishop by officials of the Nunciature, before, during and after his trial. The Nunciature did not, however, make any appeal for the mitigation of the sentence pronounced against Monsignor Stepinac. This was in accord with his own refusal to ask for clemency. It has also put the burden of the initiative on the Yugoslav authorities who are anxious to settle the affairs with Stepinac.
6. Negotiations on the subject of Episcopal appointments
If it is true that the first objective of the Communist Government was to weaken the Church by removing Archbishop Stepinac and other strong Bishops and priests, it is also true that the second objective was to penetrate the high offices of the Church through the appointment of Bishops who would be irresolute or even favourable to the present regime. In the series of negotiations which have been in course between the Holy See and the Yugoslav Government since last November, the Nunciature has been sought to keep clearly in mind that there can be no capitulation before the Communist demand for a voice in the nomination of Bishops. These negotiations are still being pursued.
7. Finally, the Nunciature has attempted to secure permission for a Catholic Relief Mission to operate in Yugoslavia
At the present time, Monsignor Albert J. Murphy, of the Diocese of Cleveland, is in Belgrade for the purpose of arranging to bring food, clothing, medicine and other necessities to the necessitous Catholics and non-Catholics of the country. Monsignor Murphy is the representative of War Relief Services, a relief agency sponsored by the Bishops of the United States. He is experiencing considerable difficulty, as the Yugoslav authorities are insisting that they cannot permit the Catholics to have a separate (f. 406r) organisation since all relief in Yugoslavia must be administered by the Yugoslav Red Cross. If Monsignor Murphy is able to set up his own relief agency, it is foreseen that this will be a great help to our Catholic people and institutions, and that it may ultimately be possible to do more than heretofore in favour of military and civilian prisoners.
During the past year, the difficulties of the Nunciature were many. Materially, it has been difficult to procure fresh food and supplies; necessary repairs and replacements cannot be obtained because of shortages; the exchange rate is so unreasonable that it is unwise to buy dinars with foreign exchange prices extremely high. The peculiar character of this police State cause the personnel of the Nunciature to be subject to constant surveillance whether in Belgrade or when on tour. The espionage has lately become so strict that very few people, other than diplomats, will risk visiting the Nunciature. At the same time, people who are believed to be agents provocateurs come to the Nunciature from time to time requesting assistance which is contrary to the laws of the country, e.g., facilitations for crossing the frontiers, for studying abroad etc. It is even hazardous to give charity to those who ask because the donor may later be charged with having assisted “subversive or rebellious elements”. Inscriptions and placards of a Communist nature have been at times painted or pasted on the walls of the Nunciature, and it has taken much assistance at the Foreign Office before these have been removed.
Outstanding among the difficulties of the Nunciature have been the press campaigns against the Church, the Holy See and occasionally the Sovereign Pontiff. The Nunciature itself has been directly attacked by the letter of Dr. Bakaric, the President of the Croat Republic. The Minister of Interior of the Slovene Republic, Mr. Kraigher, stated to the Secretary of the Curia of the Diocese of Ljubljana that the Regent would have to leave the country in case the Government were not consulted about Episcopal nominations.
In concluding this section on the relations of the Nunciature with the Government, one may say that the present position of the Nunciature is precarious. We have held the line, but there has been no real progress. The Government apparently feels that the existence of this Representation has been of more advantage to the Church than it has been to the Government. They are right in this as will be seen in the following sections in which are treated the relations of the Nunciature with Diplomatic Corps, the Hierarchy, etc.
B. Relations with the Diplomatic Corps
One of the constant concerns of the Nunciature has been to interpret the position of the Church to the other diplomatic Representations accredited to the Yugoslav Government. In following out this purpose, it has been possible to give useful information on the state of religion under the Communist regime to the envoys of the several Powers. On the other hand, the Nunciature has benefited from these contacts by receiving valuable information on developments. The Regent has been accorded sympathetic treatment by his colleagues. He has been consulted by them. Care has been taken in the Embassies and Legations to give high place to the Representative of the Holy Father, even though his protocolary status is merely that of a Chargé d’Affaires.
(f. 407r) Particularly friendly to the Nunciature have been the Embassies of Great Britain, France, the United States of America, and the Legations f Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden. The Czechoslovak Embassy has been cordial. Relations with the Representations of Turkey, Egypt and Iran have been good; those with the Representations of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary have been personally good. The Albanian Legation has been correct but cold towards the Nunciature. There have been friendly but personal contacts with the Ambassador of Poland. Relations with the Minister of “Republican” Spain have been limited to an exchange of cards. No contact has been had with the Russian Embassy.
C. Relations with the Hierarchy
From the beginning, it was felt that the paramount duty of the Nunciature was to support the Hierarchy in every way possible. In his first interview with Marshal Tito, the Regent pointed out that the success of his mission would depend greatly upon free and untrammelled relations with the Bishops and Religious Superiors of the country, and the Marshal assured him that the Government would place no obstacle in the way. Thus, for the protection of the Bishops, the Regent could depend not only upon the general nature of his mission as laid down in Canon Law, but also upon the specific assurance of the Head of the Government. The importance of this assurance becomes clear when one reflects that the giving of almost any kind of information in this country is covered by penalties provided in the Law on Crimes against the People and the State.
In general, it was the aim of the Nunciature to do all in its power to maintain high the morals of the Church leaders, to reinforce their will to resist every encroachment on the rights of the Church, to strengthen loyalty and devotion to the Holy See, to deepen their sense that they are an important part of that world solidarity which is the universal Christian family under the headship of the Vicar of Christ. The Nunciature sought to lessen their sense of isolation, to calm their fears, to instill a cheerful confidence. An attempt was made therefore to establish a feeling of normalcy by keeping open contact between the Bishops and the Holy See. It was for this reason that the Nunciature rarely used the extraordinary faculties granted to the Regent for this mission, but preferred to forward the petitions to Rome and then to send back the rescripts to the Ordinaries. The Church had to be kept above ground as long as that was possible, with Bishops and priests in their appointed places and carrying on their routine administration.
In particular, the Nunciature kept in close personal and official relations with the Archdiocese of Zagreb and with the heroic Archbishop Stepinac. Zagreb is the most important Diocese in the country with some 1,800,000 Catholics. Because of the key position held by this Archdiocese and by its Ordinary, it was apparent that it was vital for the Church to hold the line there. Another particular interest of the Nunciature has been the Diocese of Krizevci (Crisio), which belongs to the Oriental rite. By particular benevolence to this Diocese and to its courageous Bishop, Monsignor Simrak, now deceased, the Nunciature endeavoured to cement even more strongly, unity with the Holy See at a moment when they were seriously threatened by an extension of the persecution which had struck their brothers in the Ukraine.
(f. 408r) The principal activities of the Nunciature in carrying out this policy have been the following:
1. Visitation of the Diocese
In the course of fourteen months, all of the Dioceses with the exception of Skoplje have been visited by the Regent. This Diocese was omitted because of the tense military situation in Macedonia. On the occasion of these visits, the Regent has carried to the Bishops and to their clergy and faithful the Apostolic Blessing together with an expression of the paternal and affectionate sympathy with which the Sovereign Pontiff associates Himself with them in their sufferings. Because of the prudential necessity of avoiding manifestations, the Regent has made all these visits in forma privatissima. Nevertheless, he has taken the occasion to visit the Seminaries and religious novitiates to give the encouragement of the Common Father to those who are fearlessly preparing themselves to assure the service of the Altar in this persecuted land.
The visitation has also given the Regent the opportunity of gathering valuable information, and of preparing a statistical study of the persecution in the various Dioceses. Likewise, it has enabled him to establish a list of priests who are episcopabiles, and to conduct investigations into their qualifications for the office of Bishop. It is to be noted that due to the mail censorship, travel restrictions and the general surveillance, it would have been almost impossible to have obtained this information in any other way. Also, because of the advanced age and infirmities of many of the Bishops, it was impossible for them to visit the Regent at Belgrade as would have been the ordinary procedure in normal times.
The Regent thought it best to postpone consideration of the reform of abuses during the course of this visitation. Indeed, the persecution itself has cleansed and strengthened the Church in Yugoslavia, and those difficulties which remain can best be dealt with later on. The primary purpose of the visitation was to console and not to chasten. Indeed, charity in time of suffering is in itself a powerful corrective of abuse, and the Regent was convinced that the Holy Father would have desired him to act in this manner. It must be added that in the cases of the Archbishop of Antivari and of the Administrator Apostolic of Djakovo, the Regent mixed charity with some severity, but he felt that this was a useful form of strategy in order to keep these two Prelates from making damaging concessions to the Communists.
2. Hopitality at the Nunciature
At different times, those Bishops who were able to travel visited the Nunciature. On the occasion of these visits, every attention was shown to them, and special efforts were made to afford them a change from the hard conditions of their Dioceses. All of them were in need of rest, were suffering from nervous strain and in some cases from malnutrition. The Nunciature was at particular pains to keep the Bishops for a number of days as guests, and to provide them with the best food that could be obtained. They deeply appreciated the cordial welcome which they received in the house of the Holy Father.
3. Correspondence of the Nunciature
In addition to the routine correspondence on the business of the office, the Nunciature has taken care to keep in touch with the Bishops on the Feasts of Christmas and Easter, and on the Anniversary of the Pope’s Coronation. The letters on these occasions have been inspired by fraternal devotion and have rendered homage to the glorious martyrs which this country has given to the Church of God. (f. 409r) In the case of correspondence of a reserved character, it is always sent out by courier, as the Yugoslav postal services are under a strict censorship by OZNA. One of the officials of the Nunciature is travelling in the country most of the time.
4. Special attention to Zagreb and Krizevci
Because of the importance of these two Dioceses, as explained above, the Nunciature has kept in close touch with them. Zagreb has been personally visited by the Regent or other officials of the Nunciature at least once a month during this period. Likewise, close contact has been kept, and particular courtesy shown to Bishop Simrak during his lifetime, and to Monsignor Sayatovic, the present Vicar Capitular of Krizevci. In spite of the financial difficulties in which the Nunciature found itself, money was procured in order to alleviate the needs of this Diocese.
5. Material and financial assistance
There has been great difficulty in actuating a program of relief for our suffering people in Yugoslavia. The reasons for these difficulties are mainly two: a) all relief supplies of food, clothing etc., must be distributed by the Yugoslav Red Cross of UNRRA; since these agencies have been forced by the Government to discriminate against Catholics, who are called “reactionaries”, any supplies given to them would not benefit our Catholic people; b) the ridiculous exchange rates paid in dinars for foreign currency made it inadvisable to use dollars or Swiss francs in the country. Black market operations were out of the question because of the severe penalties imposed on those who engaged in this type of speculation.
In spite of these difficulties, War Relief Services of the United States was able to send one million pounds of food into the country during the past year, and this was distributed directly to the Bishops. It was used largely for the Seminaries and other Catholic institutions. At trial, Archbishop Stepinac declared if it had not been for this aid given by American Bishops under the auspices of the Holy See, it would have not been possible to keep the Zagreb Seminary open. The Yugoslav Bishops have all expressed themselves as deeply grateful to the Holy See for the material and moral assistance which this shipment represented.
It has been possible to also distribute some money to the needy Dioceses. This money was received in dinars, in the form of Peter’s Pence, mission gifts, fees, etc. from the more affluent Dioceses of Yugoslavia. It was used by the Nunciature in place of relief funds in dollars which had been placed at the disposition of the Nunciature by the Holy Father. Thus, about 600,000 dinars in relief from the Sovereign Pontiff have been given to Bishops and religious communities; both food and money have been sent through secure channels to aid the suffering Volksdeutch of the Voivodina. An additional 250,000 dinars have been given to the Diocese of Krizevci through an arrangement with the S.C. for the Oriental Churches.
It may be said, in general, that in its relations with the Hierarchy, the Nunciature has been able to carry out a useful program which has been highly appreciated by the Bishops of the country. In this sector of its work, there has been solid progress.
D. Other relations of the Nunciature
The Nunciature has made particular effort to maintain contact with the provincials of the several religious institutes of men and women.
(f. 410r) When visiting several Dioceses, these Provincials have been interviewed, consultations have been taken place on their problems, etc. Aid in the form of money and food has been supplied to them as to the Bishops. In the case of the Sisters’ institutes, the Bishops have been urged to send small groups to those Religious who had been ejected from their houses into the Parishes for the purpose of catechetical teaching, church music, care of altars and sanctuaries, etc. Thus, many Sisters have been able to keep up their common life after the Government had taken away their means of livelihood.
Few contacts were maintained with the Priests for the simple reason that such contacts would be dangerous to them. In a police state, the Government knows every person who approaches a member of the Diplomatic Corps. These persons might easily be accused of any of the long catalogue of “crimes” under the infamous Law on Crimes against the people and the State. It was decided, in order to protect our priests, to have little to do with them.
A fortiori, the Nunciature has not made any effort to keep in touch with leading Catholic laymen.
The same may be said for Yugoslav citizens of the Capital. In normal times, it would be useful to have acquaintances in this milieu, but it is quite out of the question under the present regime. Occasion has been taken from time to time, however, to indicate the sympathy of the Nunciature for the sufferings of the Serbian schismatics. Needless to say, this has been always done in an indirect way, for the Nunciature has no relations with high officials of the schismatic Church.
E. General considerations
1. There is no question of the importance of the Nunciature. It is a Representation of the Holy See in the most Communist of the States which are now in the Soviet orbit. Bishops, priests and people look to it as their line of communication with the Vicar of Christ and with the Catholic world. Its very presence is a source of immense moral support and encouragement to a Church which, under an insidious and ruthless persecution, is fighting for its life.
The Nunciature is looked up to by the representatives of those countries which are in favour of western civilization and the Christian ethos. They know that the political parties are powerless, that the schools are communized, that liberty of speech, of assembly and of press is dead, and that the Catholic Church today is the only defender of decency which is still standing on its feet in Yugoslavia.
It is therefore imperative to maintain the Nunciature in operation as long as may be possible. If the Government indicates clearly that it is dissatisfied with the present Regent, as the Bakaric letter implies, the Holy See should not hesitate to recall him and name another: the Nunciature itself is far more important than its titular. The Holy See might, in that event, keep in mind the criteria suggested by the Regent in his previous report on the Bakaric letter.
2. (f. 411r) Some attention should be given to enhancing the prestige of the Nunciature. While it is not advisable at the present time to take any initiative towards raising the status of the titular to that of the Nuncio or Internuncio, the question might be entertained if and when the Yugoslav Government proposes to send a Minister to the Holy See. There is some rumour of that in Catholic and in diplomatic circles during the past few weeks. The present Regent recommends that, if he is to remain here for some time still, the position of the personnel of the Nunciature secretariat be re-considered.
According to the Annuario Pontificio, both the secretaries are merely “Provisional Attachés”. With the low rank of the Regent, who is only a Chargé d’Affaires, the Nunciature is thus reduced almost to the minimum possible rank. It is recommended that Father Donald Dailey be named Counsellor, and that Father Bernard Smith be named Secretary. They will clearly understand that this is pro forma, and that they are not raised to that rank except during the duration of their service here. It does appear strange that one who is a Provisional Attaché should be Chargé d’Affaires of the Nunciature during the absence of the Regent.
3. Finally, the health and spirits of the Nunciature personnel demand that at least once every six months they be given leave for a period in order to recuperate from the strain of living under the terrible conditions which exist in this country. It is not only that foods such as fresh meats and vegetables are hard to obtain, and that recreation is almost impossible; it is the constant surveillance and menace of life here, the ever-present fear of reprisals against those with whom one works, that affects the nerves, the appetite and the temper. Most of the Embassies and Legations make special efforts to get their officers out of the country from time to time. The Regent has been following the practice of giving short vacations at six month intervals to the staff. He will much appreciate it if he himself is permitted to get a change of atmosphere at such intervals as the necessities of the mission will allow.
II. The persecution of the Catholic Church – General aspects
A. Official attitude of the Government towards the Church
The statements in the Yugoslav Federal Constitution and in the Constitutions of the several Republics that there is freedom of religion under the regime of separation of the Church from State must be read in light of other statements in the same Constitutions, but above all, they must be interpreted in the light of facts of history during the past few years in this country. As a restriction even on the guarantees of freedom of religion contained in the Constitutions, there are certain constitutional provisions which definitely limit the rights of the Church. Thus, the State reserves to itself the exclusive right of education. Even Seminaries are submitted to State control. Preparatory Seminaries have no right to exist according to the official interpretation of the Constitution. Youth is a special concern of the State. Homeless children are the wards of the State. The Constitution establishes civil marriage, although a subsequent religious ceremony is permitted.
Marshal Tito as Chief of the Government, has also clarified the official attitude of the State towards the Church. In his conference with Catholic Bishops at Zagreb in the spring of 1945, he indicated that he desired the Church “to serve the people”, i.e., the Government, and that (f. 412r) it would be desirable that they had greater independence of “outside influences” in their work. The Bishops, of course, immediately understood that this was an invitation to a “los von Rom” movement, and they stated clearly that they stood with the Holy See. Marshal Tito again reiterated his demands that the Church “serve the people”, i.e., the Government in a speech pronounced at Zagreb last May. During a series of speeches along the Dalmatian Coast last July, he attacked priests and Prelates, he used irreverent language towards the local devotions to the Blessed Virgin, and he made open threats against Churchmen who opposed the Government. Particularly in his Zagreb speech, Marshal Tito used language which was nothing less than a veiled incitement to direct action by the “people” against the Church.
Among a large number of anti-Catholic statements by other highly placed officials, it will be sufficient to refer to two utterances by the President of the Croatian Republic, Dr. Vladimir BAKARIC. On September 29, 1946, the day before the opening of the trial of Archbishop Stepinac, Dr. Bakaric told the students of Zagreb that the attitude of the Government on religion is the same as that of the great pioneers of Communism, Marx, Engels and Lenin. He added that while this is their ultimate aim, they do not intend to proceed to reach this aim by persecution. The truth of this latter statement can easily be tested by what the Government has actually been doing against the Church. Indeed, the statement was made on the very eve of one of the most flagrant of all acts of persecution carried on by the Communist Government, namely the trial and sentence of Archbishop Stepinac. The second major pronouncement of Dr. Bakaric was made in a letter to VJESNIK, a leading Zagreb newspaper, on January 29, 1947. In that letter, the Croat President attacks the Nunciature because it maintains contacts with the Yugoslav Hierarchy and Churchmen; implicitly denies the right of Bishops and priests to preach against atheism; lashes out against devotion to the Blessed Mother and the pilgrimages in her honor.
Even more clearly than the utterances mentioned above, the writings and statements of various Communists evidence the determination of the Government to persecute religion in Yugoslavia. Thus, the walls of buildings all over the country were covered with inscriptions attacking the Church and Churchmen. Even Churches and Seminaries had these anti-religious slogans daubed on their walls. “Down with clero-fascists”; “death to the signers of the Bishops’ Pastoral Letter”; “death to Archbishop Stepinac”; were among the inscriptions noted.
Anti-Catholic placards have been common in the officially sponsored parades which are held from time to time in various parts of the country. A typical example was the parade at Split, on the last May first. There were gross and insulting caricatures of Archbishop Stepinac, surrounded by Bishops and priests, during students’ parades in Zagreb at the time of the November elections. On these occasions, too, the marchers demonstrate and shout insulting slogans in front of Churches and ecclesiastical houses. On other occasions, school children are coached to call out offensively as they pass Bishops’ Houses, e.g. the recent demonstrations of this kind against the Bishop of Mostar.
(f. 413r) With few interruptions, the controlled press of Yugoslavia has kept up a continual barrage of anti-Catholic propaganda throughout the year. Numerous samples of this press campaign have been forwarded to the Secretariate of State. Since there is no opposition press in the country, and since the three Catholic papers which continue to be published have been reduced almost to the status of gazettes for official notices, there has been no possibility of replying to these attacks.
Three books have been published during the year on the “crimes” of the Catholic clergy. One was a general resume of all the Communist accusations again the Catholic Bishops and priests in the country; the second was an account of the trial of Bishop Rozman; the last was an account of the trial of Archbishop Stepinac. It is impossible to publish any defense against these publications for the simple reason that the Government will not permit it. One remarks in passing that in the book on the trial of Archbishop Stepinac only the case of prosecution is included. Not a word of the magnificent and convincing defense.
B. Declarations of individual communists
It is even more revealing to study some of the casual remarks of Communist officials in regard to the Catholic Church. Thus Mr. Ales BEBLER, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, told a French Diplomat last year “We should like to close this country hermetically for 20 years as the Russians did in their country. Then we could liquidate at leisure all elements opposed to us and re-make the country.” General Velebit, also Assistant Foreign Minister, told another diplomat: “The Archbishop of Zagreb should be shot; but we can’t do that because he is an Archbishop”. It is remarked that this was said while the trial of Monsignor Stepinac was still in session. Mr. Milovan Djilas, Minister without portfoglio in the national Government, referring privately to the Archbishop of Belgrade, said: “We shall deal with him when the time comes”. A Communist at Zagreb told a priest: “It would give me great pleasure to kill you on the spot – but that is not yet allowed”. A Communist at Banjaluka told some Sisters: “We plan to liquidate all the Convents, and force the Sisters to go home, get married and raise up children for the Communist State”. At Sarajevo, in a Communist meeting, the comrades were told: “We shall close every Catholic Church in Sarajevo with one exception, and we shall do that as a memorial of an epoch that is past”.
C. The persecution in act
The real test of any constitution, law or policy is always the test of its application. This is especially true where Communists are concerned because their acts differ very much from their declarations. Thus, for internal and external public opinion, the Communists point to their Constitution in Yugoslavia, and to their laws and public declarations to prove there is religious liberty in the country. The grim facts of religious persecution are the best interpretation of the laws of this land. The following is an incomplete category of acts of persecution which belie Communist propaganda about religious freedom in Yugoslavia.
1. Acts against freedom of worship
The Communists point to the fact that Churches are open in Yugoslavia as a proof of religious freedom. One notes immediately that freedom of worship is only one element in true freedom of religion. While it is (f. 414r) true that most of the Churches are open, there are nevertheless many serious restrictions in fact on even the elementary freedom of worship. In the first place, many Churches have been closed; thus along the Dalmatian Coast, some Churches have been seized and used for storage of grain; in some villages of Bosnia, the people are not allowed to approach the Churches; in many parts of the country, permission has been refused to priests who sought to officiate in Churches which do not have a Pastor.
In Hercegovina, Catholic populations have been transferred forcibly from their villages, and their Churches closed. There are no Churches in the regions to which they have been obliged to emigrate, and their priests have not been allowed to accompany them. The Communist terror has either killed or forced to flee the Parish priests of many villages, so that no services can be held in a large number of Churches. This has been particularly true in Croatia.
Throughout the country, OZNA agents keep a close surveillance on those who attend Church and note down their names. In a police State where the life of every man is at the mercy of the authorities, this is a very serious restraint on liberty of worship.
Soldiers, militia and public employees are forbidden to attend Church. There is no law, but superior officers let it be known that nay one who goes to Church will be punished as people whose loyalty is suspect. Thus, it is rare that a man in uniform is seen in Church even though there are many hundreds of thousands of them in the country. An official of this Nunciature overheard a uniformed Yugoslav Army Officer refuse an invitation to enter a Catholic Church on Easter Sunday; his reply to the invitation was “I should like to go in, but it would be dangerous for me”. Countless cases have come to the attention of the Nunciature in which Catholic soldiers come secretly to the Church at night in order to make their Confessions and to receive Holy Communion. Thus, a very numerous class of people in Yugoslavia are denied even freedom of worship.
Children in the State orphanages and student hostels or resident halls are forbidden to attend Catholic Churches. As is known this is a very numerous class now since the State has taken over all Catholic orphanages and residence halls for students. This other large section of the population is denied the right of worship.
On Sunday morning, in every part of the country, men, women and children are obliged to do “voluntary” work on the roads, in the fields etc., and it is impossible for them to fulfill their duty of attending the Sunday Mass. When there is no “voluntary” work to be done, the young people are obliged to attend meetings, picnics, motion pictures, etc. on Sunday morning. The latent purpose of all this is to render impossible their presence at Mass.
Thus, while it is true that many of the Churches are open, the Communists are doing all in their power to prevent Catholics from entering them. The most ruthless and powerful pressure is being applied to force people to abandon the practice of religion. One can see the open Churches, but it is not so easy to see all the cunning and intimidation employed by the Communists in order to make them empty Churches. Nor is it easy for those who know only Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana to see the Churches which have been closed and those upon whose altars the fires of Sacrifice have died (f. 415r) in the rural sections of the country.
In many other ways, the Communist authorities have placed severe limitations on the bare freedom of worship. One example which is very revealing is the attitude towards baptism of children. The military, police, State functionaries and others who are employed in Government enterprises are intimidated into neglecting to have their children baptized. Of course there is no law on the subject, but these poor people are told by their Communist masters that they will become suspect if they have this “superstitious rite” performed on their children, and that they may lose their jobs. For this reason, many Catholics are now having their children secretly baptized.
Another example: on the occasion of civil marriage, which alone is valid in the eyes of the State, the contracting parties are frequently urged not to have any religious marriage. They are told either directly or by inuendo that the authorities frown upon the religious ceremony and that they have no “confidence” in those who insist on having it performed. In a police state, and in a state where increasing numbers of people are dependent on their livelihood upon the Government, one can readily see how strongly such an attitude qualifies religious freedom. In some parts of the country, those who contracted civil marriage were required to sign a form that they would not afterward have any church ceremony performed. This has now been discontinued; probably because it was clear evidence of intimidation, but the pressure against religious marriages still goes on.
Another evidence: Priests are not allowed to visit hospitals unless upon direct request of the persons who are ill. Often these requests are cynically forgotten, and the patient is allowed to die without the Sacraments which he so greatly desires. It is particularly difficult for a priest to see patients in the military hospitals where many die without the Sacraments even though they plead for the consolations of their faith.
Another example: Catholic funeral services are frequently denied to soldiers who die while under arms.
Another example: No Catholic Chaplains are permitted in the Yugoslav Army.
Another example: In the great majority of cases, prisoners who are condemned to death are refused the opportunity to see a priest before their execution.
Another example: The Sacrament of Confirmation cannot be conferred in some parts of the country because Communists organize demonstrations to prevent Bishops from visiting the villages of their Dioceses.
Finally, one must note in this connection that many of the great religious processions which were traditional among the Catholic Croats and Slovenes, such as Corpus Christi, have had to be abandoned or held within the Church. It will not be forgotten that when the Regent of the Nunciature consecrated the Auxiliary Bishop of Ljubljana last December, the Communist authorities expressed their opinion that the usual procession from the Bishop’s House to the Cathedral would be considered as a “political demonstration” and therefore “might invite reprisals”. Even (f. 416r) after the procession was cancelled, a tear-gas bomb exploded in the Cathedral during the course of the ceremony.
Likewise, the Communist authorities have gone to extraordinary lengths in hindering and preventing the customary pilgrimages to the Shrines of the Blessed Mother. Press attacks have been frequented against the famous Croat pilgrimage to Our Lady of Bistrica; Marshal Tito and Dr. Bakaric have bitterly ridiculed such pilgrimages.
2. Acts against the freedom of Church administration
The freedom of the Church cannot be judged on the merely material basis of a Church building. Even if all the Church buildings were left open and free of access, the question still arises whether the Church itself, the society of the faithful under their Pastors with the Supreme Pontiff at the head, is free to carry on its divine work of teaching, sanctifying and governing. The following facts will prove that the Church is not free in government or administration in its rightful field here in Yugoslavia.
In the first place, there has been an almost uninterrupted press campaign against the Holy Father and the Holy See agencies in the controlled newspapers, reviews and pamphlets during the past year. That the purpose of this campaign has been to divorce Catholics from their allegiance to the See of Peter is evident from the fact that it followed in certain official expressions of Marshal Tito and of Dr. Bakaric. Dr. Edward Kardelj, Vice-President of the Council has also spoken in this same sense.
In the second place, the Communist Government has sought to interfere in the nomination of Yugoslav Bishops, and that in spite of the fact that there is no Concordat of Modus Vivendi on the subject, and that the Constitution proclaims separation of Church and State. The expressed purpose of the Government is to bring about the appointment of Bishops who will be acceptable to a Communist, i.e., atheist Government. This is an entirely unwarrantable interference in the freedom of ecclesiastical regimen.
In the third place, the Communist Government has refused to allow Pastors to take up their duties in Slovenia without the previous placet of the local authorities. In other parts of the country, Pastors are simply excluded from the Parishes to which they have been appointed, if it so pleases the local Communist Party.
In the fourth place, pastoral visitations of Bishops have in numerous cases been made impossible by organized Communist demonstrations which were abetted and supported by the militia. Mention may be made of the following cases: Bishop Bonefacic of Split; Bishop Pusic of Hvar; Bishop Buric of Senj, Bishop Lach of Zagreb. In other cases, Bishops on pastoral visitation have been subjected to search and to various harassing annoyance. Examples are Archbishop Ujcic of Belgrade; Bishop Cule of Mostar; Bishop Cekada of Skoplje.
In the fifth place, Bishops have been imprisoned or subjected to house arrest even though they are entirely innocent of any wrongdoing. Examples in point are Archbishop Dobrecic of Bar; Bishop Srebrnic or Krk; (f. 417r) and of course Archbishop Stepinac of Zagreb, who was confined to his house under surveillance for more than a year previous to his arrest and sentence to sixteen years imprisonment.
In the seventh place, many Bishops have been curtly summoned to police headquarters on various occasions and subjected to long and humiliating interrogation by arrogant and menacing OZNA agents. They are thus forced, for no reason than the arbitrary will of the police masters of this State, to lose valuable time from their pastoral labors. Instances: Bishop Cekada of Skoplje; Bishop Salis-Seewis of Zagreb; Bishop Butorac, Administrator of Dubrovnik; Archbishop Dobrecic of Bar.
In the eighth place, Bishop Butorac of Kotor is not permitted to enter his Diocese.
In the ninth place, Bishop Salis-Seewis and Bishop Lach, both of Zagreb, are not permitted to leave the city of Zagreb, and are considered as being under arrest and at the disposition of the Public Prosecutor.
In the tenth place, every Bishop is under constant surveillance, and those who visit them are liable to detention and interrogation. It can readily be seen how seriously such a system interferes with the access of the people to their Shepherd, and tends to separate the authorities of the Church from their faithful.
In the eleventh place, people who visit the parish houses of the priests, or who are visited by the priests are liable to detention and questioning by the police. There have been a series of such incidents in the Archdiocese of Zagreb; the people are usually dismissed with the warning that it will not be good for them if they allow the priest to visit them again, or if they visit the priest. In the villages all over the country, a constant watch is kept by OZNA agents on the house of the priest, and all who visit him are noted down. Again, one can easily imagine how in a police State, where the life of everyman is at the mercy of the authorities, this system tends to isolate the priest from his people and render pastoral ministrations difficult and often impossible.
In the twelfth place, the pastoral administration of the Church is seriously hampered by the fact that in many Parishes the Pastor is forced to flee under threat of imminent death. That this is no idle threat is evident from the fact that a number of priests have been murdered either by militia or by “persons unknown” during the past year. Nothing of these murders ever appears in the newspapers, and the police make no effort to apprehend and punish the murderers.
In the thirteenth place, Church administration is impeded by the beatings administered to Parish Priests by militia and persons in civil garb. Examples are the cases already reported to the Secretariate of State from Zagreb, Split etc.
(f. 418r) It can be seen from the foregoing, how cunningly planned and how wide-spread is the effort to separate the Church in Yugoslavia from the Holy See, and Bishops and priests from their faithful. All this is being done under cover, and without the publication of any general order. It is accompanied by stark terror and the most ruthless intimidation. Countless laypeople have been spirited away and killed during the past year simply because they were good Catholics. The Communists undoubtedly hope that by a continuation and extension of these methods, they will destroy the basis of Church administration in this country. Certainly, in the light of the few examples given above, it is clear that there is very little freedom of religious administration in the Church of Yugoslavia.
3. Freedom of religious teaching and acts against it
Religious teaching is carried on in many ways. Chief among them are sermons in Church and special conferences; catechism classes for children; Catholic schools; and the Catholic press. It will be useful to see how the persecution of the Church in Yugoslavia has reduced or destroyed the effectiveness of religious teaching. One must bear constantly in mind that the present phase of the Communist program for this country is one of preparation, and that therefore while Catholic teaching is severely restricted, it is not yet completely abolished as in Russia. That is planned as a later development. Following is a partial catalogue of Communist acts to abolish freedom of Catholic teaching in Yugoslavia.
Sermons
OZNA agents are present at all services in all the Churches of the country for the purpose of reporting on the sermons preached. In unnumerable cases, priests have been subjected to long interrogation about their sermons, and they have been threatened with dire punishment if they continued to speak about such subjects as Christian marriage, atheism, etc. Even preaching on the fifth commandment – thou shalt not kill – is considered as a criticism of the Government. Communist activists have interrupted sermons in Church with shouts and imprecations against the preacher. A few instances will suffice to document this widespread attempt to muzzle the Catholic pulpit and to abolish freedom of Catholic teaching.
In September 1946, Bishop Butorac, Administrator Apostolic of Dubrovnik, was interrogated for hours on a sermon he had preached on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. The interrogation was conducted by OZNA Chief for the Dalmatian Coast who had come from Split to Dubrovnik for this specific purpose. When the Bishop protested that he had preached on a purely religious subject, and that his sermon had been falsely reported, he was told that the Government was interested only in the effect which the sermon had on those who heard it, and that they accepted the reports of their agents.
In November 1946, Bishop Cekada of Skoplje was twice summoned to OZNA headquarters at Banjaluka, where he is Administrator Apostolic, and subjected to lengthy examination because of his sermons.
In the territory of the Diocese of Djakovo, the Public Prosecutor summoned all the priests of his district to a meeting and gave them orders about the manner of their sermons and the topics which it was not permitted to discuss. In this curious and rather humorous lecture on homiletics, the Public Prosecutor insisted among other things that the priests should (f. 419r) not talk about Job. When he was asked why reference to Job was forbidden, the Public Prosecutor replied that it might be considered by the faithful as a criticism of the Government; Job had at first been happy and prosperous, and then through afflictions of the devil he had become the most miserable of men; in his patience and resignation to the will of God, Job had triumphed over his sufferings, and had again become a happy and prosperous man. One may add parenthetically that the Public Prosecutor, in objecting to references to Job, has epitomized better than he realized the real state of affairs in this country. There has been bitter laughter in Yugoslavia over its story; it is too good to be withheld from the rest of the world.
In the Archdiocese of Zagreb, two Dominican Fathers were arrested last summer because of the sermons they preached in the course of parish missions. Both of them were subsequently sentenced to terms in prison because they had preached about the two standards, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil. In the official indictment, or act of accusation, which has already been transmitted to the Secretariate of State, it is clearly stated that this is the reason for their imprisonment. Certainly, if preaching on such a topic is a crime, then every priest in the world is a criminal, because the comparison of the two standards is as old as Christianity. The Communists seemed to recognize themselves all too clearly as followers of the standard of the devil.
As a final example, one may mention the highly authoritative letter of Dr. Bakaric, written last January to the Zagreb newspaper VJESNIK, in which the Croat President takes objection to preaching about atheists and about apparitions of the Blessed Mother.
Because of the danger to their priests, already pitifully reduced in numbers through murder, imprisonment and exile, the Bishops in many Dioceses have advised their priests to preach only from written manuscripts, or to read from books on the Faith and on the spiritual life. They hope thus to confound those who like the Pharisees of old, seek to trap the priests in their words. Notable in this connection is the action taken by some of the faithful in the Diocese of Banjaluka where there are now only seven Diocesan priests remaining from a pre-Communist total of twenty-six. These good people have asked their priests not to preach so as to escape the danger of arrest, and they added: “We want to have the Holy Mass; it is our great consolation now that everything has been taken from us. As for our need of Christian instruction, please do not worry; never have we so well understood the Faith as we do now when we are being persecuted for it. Please do not run the danger of preaching, for then we may lose the Holy Mass.”
From these examples chosen from numerous cases which have come to the attention of the Nunciature, it is clear that there is little freedom to preach in Communist Yugoslavia. It is clear, too, that there is a well-organized plan to separate the faithful from the oral teaching of the faith.
Catechism
The determination of Communism to gain to its cause the children and the young people can be clearly seen in the strategy employed by the Government to make the teaching of catechism increasingly impossible. On the one hand, the Communists proclaim that the Church is free to teach catechism to the young; on the other hand, they employ every conceivable device to prevent such teaching. In no area of the Church-State relations is (f. 420r) the “Communist lie” more in evidence than in its question of religious teaching to youth.
In most parts of Yugoslavia, it is forbidden to assemble the children in Church for the purpose of teaching them catechism. Thus, for example last July the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina publicly announced that it was no longer allowed to hold catechism classes for Children in Church. The reasons given are interesting: the proper place for the teaching of catechism is the school; the Government has made adequate provision for the teaching of catechism in the schools. In other cases, Government officials have declared that it is contrary to the law to hold any assembly in the Churches except for the purposes of public worship.
Having practically barred catechism from the Churches, the Communists proceeded to nullify its teaching in the schools. Theoretically, the local priests are permitted to teach catechism in the elementary schools. But de facto, this permission has been rendered illusory. These are the methods commonly employed for this purpose: a) a local priest will be declared disqualified to teach the children of the people because he is a “reactionary” or an “enemy of the people”; b) those who are not completely barred from the elementary schools are permitted to teach only one hour a week; c) the one hour a week is always placed at the close of the school day when the children are tired; d) it frequently happens that when the priest comes to the school at the stipulated hour, there is no classroom available for the teaching of catechism; e) it also happens frequently that when the priest comes to the school at the stipulated hour, the children have been called into a “political conference”, or have been taken to the play-yard for physical culture exercise, or are engaged in “voluntary” work around the school building or grounds, etc, f) in those cases in which the priest is finally able to start teaching his catechism class, a group of “communist activists” among the children will create a disturbance in the class and make any effective work practically impossible. It is to be remarked that these disturber groups are deliberately organized by the school commissar; g) children who go to catechism classes are held up to public ridicule by some of their teachers in other classes.
As to gymnasium students, religious teaching is theoretically permitted in the first two classes. No religious instruction is permitted for the other two classes. In practice, little religious teaching is possible. In order to serve as a catechist in the gymnasiums, a priest must receive the approval of the local school board. Few of those presented by Church authorities for the office of catechist have been able to obtain the required approval during the past school year. In most cases, not even the courtesy of an answer is given to the application. It thus happens that in most of the gymnasiums there is no teaching of religion. Personal investigation has shown that this is the case along the Dalmatian Coast, in the Archdiocese of Sarajevo, in the Diocese of Mostar, etc. In the Archdiocese of Zagreb, as a typical example, there are now only five priests catechists approved for the teaching in the gymnasiums of the city whereas before the coming of the Communists, there were twenty.
It goes without saying that those priests who are permitted to teach religion in the gymnasiums are subjected to the same devices of obstruction and embarrassment as those mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
(f. 421r) In order to form an adequate judgment on the effects of the tactics referred to above, one must remember that there is not a Catholic elementary school or gymnasium left in Yugoslavia. All Catholic children are therefore obliged to attend the State schools. At the same time, the Communists are using the most diabolically cunning means to invade even the sanctuary of the home where ordinarily it would be possible to take effective remedies against the lack of Christian teaching and the evil Communist teaching in the schools. Children are, for example, urged to ridicule the religious beliefs and practices of their parents: they are told that the authority of parents is an outmoded relic of reaction and capitalism; they are encouraged to think for themselves and to emancipate themselves from servitude to those who are of the past; they are even instructed to report on any parent who tried to give them Christian teaching or to oblige them to Christian practices. The new insubordination of children to parents is causing endless family strife and dissension throughout the country.
One word of caution must be added in order to guarantee that the facts set forth above will be exactly appraised. No general law or regulation has been published on these subjects; on the contrary, there is constant insistence from the Communist authorities that religious instruction is entirely free in the country. In order to advance their own interests by propaganda within and without Yugoslavia, the Communists are able to point to specific elementary schools and gymnasiums where classes in catechism and religion are held with a degree of regularity. But these are exceptions; they are allowed to exist solely for the purpose of Communist publicity. From wide investigation in every part of the country, it can be stated with certainty that under all the seeming variety of practice there is at work a plan elaborated in the Communist Party councils at Belgrade which is designed gradually to abolish all religious instruction in Yugoslavia. This plan has already gone into general application. When the time is ripe, the Communists will undoubtedly proceed to liquidate the remnants of “unscientific Christian teaching” in this satrapy of Moscow.
Catholics are not without a defense against Communist strategy. The home is still a stronghold of Christian teaching in spite of efforts to undermine it. Every advantage is taken of diminishing opportunities to give instruction in the schools. Children are gathered into the Churches for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the occasion is taken to instruct them in catechism. In a word, the Church is fighting strongly to defeat the Communist efforts to separate Catholic children from the tradition of the Faith.
The catholic school
This is one of the saddest chapters in the history of the Communist persecution of the Church in Yugoslavia. The brutal fact is that in the two short years of this regime, every Catholic elementary school and every Catholic gymnasium in the country has been closed by the Government. In addition, every Catholic residence hall for students (college, convitti, internati) has been forced out of existence. Here, the Government is following the Constitution which contains the iniquitous provision that education of youth is the exclusive function of the State. This, in two years over three hundred institutions of education have been liquidated – schools of all grades, kindergartens, elementary schools, gymnasia, and residence halls for students.
(f. 422r) While the statistics available are incomplete and somewhat antiquated, it is conservatively estimated that more than 40,000 young people were registered in these educational institutions.
Catholic education has ceased in Yugoslavia with the exception of a very few of the Seminaries for the training of priests and religious which are still allowed to function.
Meanwhile the education which is being given in the State schools is of a character to cause genuine alarm for the religious future of the young people who are obliged to attend these schools. It is not only that the vast majority of young people in State schools are receiving inadequate instruction in Christian doctrine or none at all (v. supra under the title CATECHISM); the situation is rendered still graver by the fact that irreligion and atheism are taught in these schools and that antiChristian moral practices are encouraged. A few general observations on these State schools will reveal how education is now being used in Yugoslavia as a means of eradicating the Christian tradition from the minds and hearts of the students.
With a few exceptions; the customary holidays are not granted on the occasion of the Christian feasts.
Young people are often obliged to perform “voluntary” public works on Sunday morning when they should be at Mass. Thus, for example, on Easter Sunday the young people of Belgrade, Subotica, etc. were mobilized for work on public projects.
The crucifixes have been removed from most classrooms. There have been incidents during the past year, e.g. in some of the villages of Croatia, in which Catholic mothers have marched in procession to the school carrying crucifixes which they demanded should be restored to the classrooms. In other cases, little children themselves replaced crucifixes in classrooms from which they had been removed by the school comissars.
Altars which formerly stood in some of the State gymnasiums have been profaned, covered with red flags or thrown out. The incidents of this character which occurred at Zagreb will suffice as examples – these have already been reported to the Secretariate of State.
Teachers and professors who are “reactionary”, i.e. Christian and non-Communist, are being replaced by those who follow the party line. For the Communists, it is not important that the new instructors are not scholastically fitted for their jobs, and that the scholastic level of the schools is deteriorating; the only genuine test of a teacher’s qualifications is his political “regularity”. These new instructors introduce anti-Christian indoctrination into all their courses. This is particularly true in history and in the sciences.
The old text-books have been liquidated, and many of the new ones are simply translations of texts in use in the Russian schools. Some of these have been forwarded to the Secretariate of State with previous reports. The new history textbooks teach that Christ is a myth, that the Church has oppressed the people and opposed “progress” throughout its (f. 423r) career of two thousand years. The crassest form of evolution is taught in the textbooks of science; man descends from lower forms of life according to the earlier Darwinian formula. The Marxian dialectic, the Marxian sociology, the Marxian political economy, the Marxian industrial and commercial economy, the Marxian ethic, the Marxian aesthetic, the Marxian concept of law – all these are now being proclaimed in the new textbooks and from the university cathedrae of this land. Metaphysics is spurned; there is no room for it in the system of economic determinism and of historical materialism which is the new intellectual mode in the schools of Yugoslavia.
From elementary school to University, the youth of the country edit and read the so-called “black-board journals” which interpret current events according to the Communist concept. These journals often contain matter which is offensive to the Catholic conscience.
Anti-Catholic inscriptions, posters and various types of exhibits are often displayed in the schools. This, last November there was displayed in some of the schools of Zagreb a most offensive effigy of Archbishop Stepinac in pontifical robes, surrounded by priests and prelates.
Young people from the schools of all grades are frequently regimented into political processions in which the red flag of Soviet Russia is carried, and in the course of which Communist harangues are given. These often have an anti-Catholic tinge.
Communist cells exist in all the classes. It is the duty of these cells to direct the interminable meetings for political indoctrination which are held even for children in the first grade of elementary school. Members of these Communist cells also spy on the other children; frequently expose to ridicule those who go to Church, and often go as far as to beat them severely. One gymnasium student in Zagreb was beaten to death last year by members of the Communist cell of his school class; the student in question was a “clero-fascist” who persisted in going to Church. These Communist cells also organize demonstrations against the Church such as for example those which took place a few months ago against the Sisters of Charity in Lichtenturn in Ljubljana. Another example which is indicative, is that of the children who call out opprobrious slogans – “Down with the Bishop” – as they pass the home of the Bishop of Mostar.
Children are taught to sing songs against the Church in State schools. Last year in Zagreb a procession of school children, garbed in soutanes and with berrettas on their heads, marched through the streets singing opprobrious ditties against Bishops and priests. Many of these processions are particularly degrading to young people because of the vulgarity of the verses and of the accompanying gestures.
Class meetings are frequently held at which the children are encouraged to report the results of their spying on one another, and on their teachers. Many teachers have already been dismissed because their students have passed resolutions against them in these meetings. Likewise, many Catholic children have been expelled from school and this denied the opportunity of further education because of this system of denunciation in class meetings. All over the country Catholic students have been refused access to gymnasiums for the simple reason that they come from “reactionary” (f. 424r) families. The cases which have come to the attention of the Nunciature clearly indicate that this is the result, not of local initiative alone, but of a calculated plan emanating from the high Communist command in Belgrade.
Catholic children are required to give answers in class which are contrary to the teachings of their Faith. Thus, a child may be placed under the strongest pressure by his teacher to answer a question about Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by saying that “Jesus Christ never existed.” In fact, one of the common Communist school slogans which is now being popularized in Yugoslavia is “Nema Boga” – there is no God. A child who does not give the required anti-religious answers in an examination is in danger of failing to be promoted.
Moral conditions, too, are deteriorating in the schools. Even very young boys and girls are encouraged to seek one another’s company. There is an evident policy of breaking down the customary modest reserve between the sexes. One case has been reported from Bachka in which a teacher reproved a boy of ten years old because he did not have “a steady girl friend”. Everywhere one goes, schoolboys and schoolgirls of adolescent age are seen together – on excursions into the country, on “voluntary” work projects, marching and drilling in the streets, in mass physical culture exercises, etc. These mixed parties are under school organization, but there is no proper surveillance. In this regard, Yugoslavia is passing through the same phase of breaking down sexual morality of young people as was experienced in Russia under the earlier Communist regime. Parents in every part of the country testify to the deplorable effects which this abominable policy is having on the morals of their children.
One of the worst features of the new State school system is to be found in the residence halls for students. Students from rural and urban regions are received into these residence halls where sleeping and meal facilities are provided. They are numerous in the various centers of the country, and are of several categories, e.g., residence halls for university students, for gymnasium students, for students attending institutes for the training of teachers; there are even some residence halls for children in the elementary schools.
A careful selection is made of the students who are admitted into the residence halls. Preference is given to young Partisans who fought in the so-called war of liberation, to the children of Partisans who fell in battle, to the children of Communist parents, and to children who are of high intelligence. Thus, the majority of young people in these institutions begin with some orientation towards Communism.
In addition to the regular school classes which these youths follow in the State schools, the residence halls conduct their own courses of Communist indoctrination. Students are told that they are to be the future leaders of the Communist State, and that their success in taking advantage of the superior opportunities offered them will determine the positions to be given to them. That success of course depends on their enthusiasm and ability in mastering the doctrine and methods of Marxism. They are told that they are the elite of the “omladina Titova” – Tito’s youth; that (f. 425r) since much is given them by the Communist State, much will be expected of them. All this sounds suspiciously like the methods used in the development of the Hitler Jugend and of the Communist youth in Russia.
It will be seen at once that these residence halls are the real nurseries of the Communist cadres of tomorrow. They are of the greatest importance in instilling blind Communist loyalty through a system of intensive political training as selected young men and women. As time goes on, the students who come out of these residence halls will take the places of those non-Communist who still occupy influential positions in the political bureaucracy, in commerce, in industry, in education, etc.
Not without interest is the fact that the students of these residence halls are very well fed in spite of the known difficulties in provisioning the country. They are also well clothed and well shod in contradiction to other students. Unquestionably a disproportionate amount of UNRRA supplies have been diverted to maintain the higher living standards of these future leaders of Communism. Father Bernard Smith of the Nunciature staff recently had an opportunity of inspecting the kitchen of one of these residence halls located at Hvar. He reported that the kitchen was very well stocked; that the preparations for dinner which were then going on showed that the students would sit down to a plentiful meal of good quality, and that in a country where even the Diplomatic Corps is often unable to obtain fresh meat, an abundance of choice cuts of pork and veal was in evidence.
Students of the residence halls are not allowed to go to Church, nor is any priest permitted to visit them. In Catholic regions, Orthodox and Muhammedan students, usually of strong Communist convictions, are brought from other sections of the country in order to weaken further any remaining Catholic traditions among the local students. In every possible way, therefore, the Church is barred access to the souls of these young people.
Indeed, they are Janizaries of a resurgent paganism; they are being trained to root out ruthlessly even the last remnants of the Faith of their fathers. Steeped in the intellectual and moral corruption of Communism, they are to be the carriers of that corruption to the rest of their countrymen. If anyone wishes to know what the nature of Communist education is, he would do well to investigate the residence halls for here he will find the fine flower of Communist youth formed according to the pattern of Marx.
The catholic press
It is impossible to have a full liberty of Catholic teaching if the Catholic Press is not free. In Yugoslavia under the present Communist regime, the Catholic press is almost nonexistent; in the few pitiful examples which remain, liberty of expression is securely bound and gagged. Liberty of the press exists only for the Communist Party in this country – it is liberty to agree with Belgrade and Moscow.
The story of the liquidation of the Catholic Press can be told in a few words.
As far as is known, not a single printing press under Catholic ownership is auspices is left. All of them have been confiscated without compensation, usually through fraudulent device of condemning the Director (f. 426r) as a “collaborator”. One of the current definitions of “collaborator” in Yugoslavia today is: “A person whose property the Communists want to confiscate. Thus, the excellent, modern printing press of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, which printed inter alia the great Croatian paper THE GOOD SHEPHERD, has been confiscated without compensation. The well-equipped printing press of the Jesuit Fathers at Zagreb, which turned out inter alia the popular MESSENGER OF THE SACRED HEART, has been confiscated following upon the conviction of its Director, Father Ivan Nikolic, as a “collaborator”. One notes that this press was placed under sequester even before the process against the Director. Similarly, one might enumerate the confiscation of Catholic printing presses in Sarajevo, Djakovo, Ljubljana, etc. It will be seen therefore that the Communists have struck at the very roots of a free Catholic press by confiscating the institutions which made that press possible.
Theoretically it might still be possible to have our printing done by the presses now in the hands of the State authority. But the facts belie this theoretical possibility. Here are some facts.
It is impossible to get a single prayerbook printed.
It is impossible to get a single catechism printed.
It is impossible to get a single copy of the Bible printed.
It is impossible to get books of piety and devotion printed.
As a result, existing stocks have been exhausted, and it is not possible to meet the steady and growing demand for this type of publication.
The only exceptions known to the Nunciature have to do with a few specialized works of Theology for which permission had been obtained, or upon which work had already been started, before the secret ban was imposed by the Communist Party.
Before the advent of the Communist “liberators”, there were more than one hundred Catholic papers, weeklies, monthlies, reviews etc., appearing regularly in Yugoslavia. While no figures are available on their total circulation, it can be said that it ran over half a million.
Today there are only three Catholic papers published in the entire country. These are: OSNANILO (Tidings) of Ljubljana; VERSKI LIST (Religious Journal) of Maribor; and BLAGOVEST (Announcement) of Belgrade.
These three papers are of course not free. Through fear of the ever-present censorship, they are reduced almost to the status of mere official gazettes. Only a limited amount of paper is allotted to them, so that they are unable to print a sufficient number of copies for those who desire to subscribe. As soon as their circulation begins to increase, their paper allotment is cut. This is in spite of the fact that large stocks of newsprint have been confiscated from Catholic presses, and in spite of the fact that the Nunciature has offered to secure the necessary newsprint from outside the country. Needless to say, the Editors are subjected to endless harassing tactics on the part of the censors.
(f. 427r)
There is not a single Catholic paper left in all of Croatia
As is well known, Croatia is the home of the great majority of the Catholics in Yugoslavia. All of their many and flourishing papers have been suppressed. Undoubtedly freedom of the press exists for the Croats – it is guaranteed in the Constitution; it is frequently proclaimed by Yugoslav Communists at home and abroad; General Velebit of the Foreign Office has personally reassured the Regent of the Nunciature again and again, orally and in writing, that there is untrammelled freedom of the press. It is illogical to blame the Constitution if the presses are so taken up with more important matters that they are not available for anything but Government work; or if the outraged members of the printers’ syndicate refuse to set-type for “reactionaries”; or of there is no supply of paper on hand etc.
On the other hand, the State owed and controlled printing presses send out an endless stream of books and pamphlets on Communism in all its many applications to arts and sciences, to education, to every phase of life. A high proportion of products of the State press are devoted to direct and indirect attacks upon religion, and upon Catholicity in particular.
At the same time, the controlled press in every city of the country conducts from day to day, with wearying repetition, a campaign of obloquy against the Holy Father, against the Vatican, against foreign churchmen, against the Bishops, priests, religious and faithful of Yugoslavia. The very vehemence and venom of these attacks against religion contribute to the terror, and influence some of the more timid to avoid the danger of compromising themselves by attendance at Church. There is no possibility of having a factual answer to these attacks, entirely false and substantially distorted, printed in the public newspapers.
No better example of the freedom of the secular press in Yugoslavia can be given than the treatment of the trial of Monsignor Stepinac last October. The papers devoted pages to the trial, but their reports covered only the prosecution. The statements of the defense attorneys and of the defense witnesses were either omitted or garbled by comment. The vast defense documentation which established completely the innocence of the Archbishop was never reported. The masterly defense address of the Archbishop was never published – as were the addresses of the Public Prosecutor – but was dismissed in editorial polemic which completely altered the sense of what the Archbishop had said. Likewise, in the book, which was later published, under Government sponsorship, on the trial of Archbishop Stepinac, the accusations of the prosecution are given in toto – indictment, examination by the Public Prosecutor and the Judges, testimony of prosecution witnesses, address of the Public Prosecutor (83 pages long), and an index containing the documentation of the prosecution. The defense of the Archbishop is not given. This single instance reveals more clearly than volumes of observation of the nature of freedom of the press in Communist Yugoslavia.
To complete this section, it is necessary to remark that the foreign press is, with few exceptions, excluded from the newsstands of the country. Foreign journalists are not free to travel in the country without special passes and even then, under strict surveillance they are not permitted to report anything which will not pass the censorship. Indeed, they are not admitted to the country unless they are either sympathetic to Communism or (f. 428r) prepared for reasons of interest and opportunism to tolerate the restrictions placed upon their freedom. Those who do not conform to the journalistic canons of Communism do not remain long in Yugoslavia. Finally, it is now impossible to buy a foreign book or pamphlet in the bookstores of this country – unless it is Communist or favourable to Communism. Of course, the reason given is that adequate foreign exchange is not available for the purchase of foreign books. The fact remains that the many bookstores in Belgrade, Zagreb, etc. which formerly supplied foreign books on order, and which had on hand a stock of such books now display on their windows and on their shelves and counters only Yugoslav publications with here and there a rare work by a foreign Communist or philo-Communist.
In summary, freedom of religious teaching has in two years reached almost the vanishing point in Yugoslavia. Not only has there been abolition or drastic restriction of such agencies of freedom as sermons, catechism, Catholic schools and the Catholic press, but there has also been the establishment of a Government monopoly in all means of public expression, which turns out an increasing flood of propaganda for irreligion. The Communists are reaching out for the minds and souls of the Yugoslav people; they will tolerate no co-existence of another society even if that be a supernatural one. They are the totalitarian State.
4. Freedom of Catholic association and acts against it
The Catholic Action groups which formerly flourished in all the Dioceses of the country no longer exist. Strangely enough, they have been disbanded by the Bishops themselves. This was done early in the present Communist regime for the simple reason that the authorities of the State had insisted on obtaining the list of members, and it was known that the intention was to liquidate them. Rather than supply the Communists with what would have been in effect prescription lists, the Bishops quietly dissolved Catholic Action as an organized identity.
The purposes of the Government to liquidate, at the proper time, all members of Catholic Action groups, is beyond dispute; it is evidenced by the instructions which have been issued to OZNA to compile data on all those in their districts who belong to Catholic societies, such as the Children of Mary. Copies of these instructions have fallen into friendly hands, and one of them has been forwarded to the Secretariate of State in a previous report.
It goes without saying that if the Bishops had not prudently dissolved their Catholic associations, the Communists would have done so after having gotten possession of the membership rolls. According to the laws, no meeting can be held unless previous permission has been received from the Government authorities. Communists are notoriously nervous about meetings which they do not control themselves.
This law is carried to such absurd extremes that it is not now permitted to hold choir practice whether in Church or elsewhere. An instance: a number of Catholic women belonging to a choir group in the Cathedral Parish of Sibenik were interrogated by OZNA for having held a practice before one of the local Feasts. They were accused of violating the law on assembly, and were ordered to discontinue further practice meetings.
(f. 429r) It is interesting to contrast the suppression of all Catholic associations with the widespread promotion of Communist organizations for all ages, sexes and conditions of the population. One of the most important features of all these organizations is their anti-Catholic and anti-religious character. There is no freedom for the Catholic organization, but unlimited scope is given to those organizations which attack the church. A partial list of these organizations may be helpful.
Pioniri (the Pioneers) is an organization of children in elementary schools. There is an inner Communist core, but all the children are regimented into class groups.
SKOJ (Communist Youth Association of Yugoslavia) is the inner core of the Communist organization for youths of both sexes. It operates in the gymnasiums and in the Universities, and also among working youth. The so-called Activists often belong to this group; they are used for official terrorist activities such as the beating and killing of proscribed people, the conduct of demonstrations, etc. Much secrecy is attached to the list of members, but they are not numerous. They in turn organize satellites in their school classes, workshops, etc.
AFZ (The anti-fascist Women) is the inner core of the organizations for women in Yugoslavia. It is composed of Communists whose main duty is to break down the resistance of the Christian women of this land to the irreligious and unnatural program of the Party. They also, through occasional statements and resolutions, propagandize the party slogans about the emancipation of the Communist women, Communist care for mother and child, social welfare etc. Members of the AFZ are the inspirers of all the satellite organizations for women.
Syndicates or labor unions have a preponderant rule in industrial workers’ organizations. Every worker is obliged to belong to his local union, but as in all Communist organizations, it is a small group of Party members who are in control. The great power wielded by the syndicates is due to the fact that the job of every worker depends upon membership. Not only industry but also commerce, service enterprises and even the professions now have their syndicates.
Cooperatives are the basic form of rural Communist organization. A free system of cooperatives existed in Yugoslavia prior to the “liberation”, but these have now been taken over by the Communists and are managed by cells of Party members. The communization of the farms is still in an initial phase, but the regulations recently issued on obligatory planting and obligatory sale at fixed prices of a large proportion of the maximum calculated harvest constitute a long step towards collectivization. The Agrarian Reform law has prepared the way. A great area of the confiscated land was not re-distributed to the peasants but was retained by the State. These State lands are now being operated as collective farms; in other words, the kholkhoz system has already begun in Yugoslavia. In passing, one may remark that there is here another glaring example of the Communist lie; the Government repeatedly declared during the past year that they had no intention of collectivizing the land.
The above-mentioned organizations, and others which stem from them, engage in a variety of activities pertaining to the work of the particular group and its place in the Communist scheme of things. There are many (f. 430r) conferences and lectures on methods of work, but they have always contained a large dosage of Communist indoctrination. Entertainment in the form of singing songs, excursions into the country, etc. are promoted for the purpose of developing camaraderie. Paid vacations to superior workers place a premium upon rivalry in production. The “udarnicki”, like the Soviet “stakhanovites”, are among the most publicized people in Yugoslavia. They are the shock troops of Communism in industry.
Particular attention should be paid to the activities of the youth organizations, particularly in the fields of indoctrination and of entertainment. Youth houses are springing up in the cities and in the villages where conferences are held, tasks assigned, choral and dramatic interests promoted. There is no separation of the sexes. Until a short time ago, there was much dancing and some drinking indulged at these youth centres. But lately there has been a campaign against alcoholism and against Western dance; the Communists are now encouraging the Kolo, a native folk dance which, to tell the truth, is a much more modest exercise than the dances common in the west.
Much more reprehensible and dangerous to youthful mortality are the Sunday excursions into the country both for the purpose of doing public work, for example on the roads, and for relaxation. Much criticism has come from parents about the mixing of the sexes without reliable supervision on these excursions.
Organized physical culture exercises – fiskultura, as it is called here – with parades and demonstrations in scanty costume have also caused grave concern especially to the parents of the girls. Fiskultura is a passion of the Communists, and the movement is country-wide and well organized in Yugoslavia. Boys and girls participate in the same formations.
One of the activities which has occasioned most serious preoccupation is that of the “Youth Railroads”: In the summer of 1946, the Yugoslav youth built a stretch of railroad from Brcko to Banovina [sic] in Bosnia. This year a larger stretch will be constructed from Samac to Sarajevo in Bosnia. It is announced that 180,000 young people of both sexes from all parts of the country will participate in this work. Some of the youth brigades have already started their labours. Each brigade works for two months and then is replaced. The hours of labor are usually six each day, and the rest of the time is spent in military drills, physical culture, singing and political conference.
While the young people are supposed to volunteer for work on these railroads, they are in reality compelled to go and are severely punished if they do not volunteer. A boy or girl who refuses to serve is not permitted to be promoted in school; if he is a worker, he is penalized in his syndicate. It is generally thought that actual achievement in the building of the railroads is secondary to the political indoctrination purpose behind this movement. The railroad built last year was a failure, it is said, from a technical standpoint, since only one train was able to move over the line. But the Communist education and camaraderie accomplished is said to have been considerable.
While it is not possible to get exact information on the subject, there are widespread rumors that moral conditions in the railroad camps, where (f. 431r) the sexes live in close proximity in tents and dormitories, are not wholesome. The boys and girls work together, often eat together, and mix socially after hours of labor. And all this with only Communist supervision. Among the stories which circulated last year was one to the effect that a large number of the young women had become pregnant, and another to the effect that there had been a high incidence of venereal disease among young people who returned from the railroad.
It is to be noted that delegations of young people of both sexes from other countries, the Balkan lands; Russia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Italy, England, the Americas, etc. take part in building of these Yugoslav youth railroads.
No account of the youth associations in Yugoslavia would be complete without at least passing reference to the militia, or national police, and the Army. Aside from the professional training given, these formations which include all the able-bodied youth of the country as they are called up by classes put great emphasis on Communist education. The soldiers receive a particularly virulently anti-religious indoctrination.
In every single instance where youth is brought into association under Communist direction, the young people are barred from Church attendance. It is not only that no facilities are made available – no chaplains and no field chapels – but they are actively dissuaded from attending any Churches in the neighbourhood. The unchurching of the youth of the country is perhaps the most dangerous of all the efforts which are being made by the Communists to weaken and eventually to destroy the Church in Yugoslavia.
5. Freedom of charitables, social and welfare work under Catholic auspices and acts against it
Communism, as the most absolute of all totalitarian systems of government, tolerates neither rivalry nor cooperation in any field. It was to be expected that, following out this principle, it would early mark for destruction the institutions of Catholic charity and welfare in Yugoslavia. With diabolical cunning, the Communists realized that if they were to separate the people from the Church, they must demolish the magnificent works of Christian charity which here as elsewhere had grown up as the necessary corollary of Christ’s teaching on the love of neighbour. The following summary shows how they have succeeded only too well in reaching most of their objectives.
There is not one orphanage under Catholic auspices left in Yugoslavia.
There is not one home for the aged under Catholic auspices in Yugoslavia.
In other words, the Communists have abolished almost one hundred of these institutions of Christian charity and evicted or turned over to the tender mercies of Partisan commissars over five thousand of the inmates.
In order to justify this inhuman policy before the Yugoslav public, the Communists carried on a newspaper campaign against the religious which contained the basest and most mendacious calumnies. One recalls, for example, the infamous caricature of Sisters butchering children in Ljubljana; the repeated charges that Sisters maltreated and starved the children of (f. 432r) Partisan soldiers; the accusations that boys in Catholic orphanages were forced to become priests; the diatribes against the religious as traitors, collaborators and enemies of the people.
In regard to the Catholic hospitals, there were about one hundred of them in Yugoslavia before the war, and they took care of about 400,000 patients per year; many of these hospitals were the property of the State but under the direction of Sisters; others belonged to the religious communities. Sisters have been expelled from a number of hospitals, but they continue to carry on their labor of charity in the majority of them.
The only reason that so many Catholic hospitals have been spared so far is that the Communists do not have enough trained nurses, technicians, and administrators to take them over. But they are replacing the Sisters as rapidly as they can prepare even inadequately their own personnel. Thus, the number of Sisters is steadily diminishing in the hospitals which they still staff.
Meanwhile, Sisters are being subjected to a harassing campaign of intimidation. They are being told that they will be sent to Siberia unless they cast aside the religious habit and renounce their vows. They are forbidden to offer religious consolation to their patients. They are obliged to join the hospital workers’ syndicates. They are told that they have no responsibility or obedience towards their local Superior, but only to the hospital Commissar. Attractive offers of high position at good salaries are made to them – if only they will quit the religious community.
In the public press, too, they are subjected to all sorts of obloquy. They are accused of stealing medicines and hospital supplies from the “people”; of refusing nursing services to Communists; of giving preferential treatment to those who give them gifts.
This is not merely a press campaign; many Sisters have been arrested and condemned to prison on trumped up charges like those mentioned. The most flagrant example was that of the Sisters of Charity of the Otocac hospital, of whom one was shot and three were sentenced to 20 years in prison on absolutely false charges of having cooperated in the murders committed by the Ustashi in their hospital.
There can be no doubt that the Communists intend to expell Sisters from the hospitals as soon as that is feasible. They readily admit that this is their purpose. For example, Mr. Marijan Akcin, Minister of Public Health in the Republic of Slovenia, in a report read before the Public Assembly of that Republic on April 16th, charged Sisters with being “intolerant” in religion, “reactionary”, and even common criminals. He let it be known that in due time, through the vigilance of the syndicates, these elements will be expelled. He terminated by appealing for more candidates and better training for the career of nursing.
All of the great Diocesan Charity Agencies have been suppressed by the Communists, and their funds, installations and books confiscated. For example, CARITAS of Zagreb, which has had a notable career in its work of mercy, has been completely wiped out. It will be remembered that this was the agency through which Archbishop Stepinac carried on his war-time (f. 433r) work of mercy to all. Under the Ustashi regime, this providential association saved over 4,000 Serbian children, fed, clothed and housed them under the motherly care of Sisters. Although many of these children expressed their desire to become Catholics, the Archbishop personally directed that they must wait, and that the usual tests of their understanding and intention be applied. As much as a year after the Partisans had closed these institutions and scattered the children, some of these latter approached Catholic pastors to be admitted into the Church. Caritas also took care of many Jews during the Ustashi terror. The story of the destruction of the Zagreb Caritas is paralleled in every other Diocese of the country.
In order to discredit Caritas of Zagreb and the Archbishop, the Communists forced the former Director to sign a statement prepared by the OZNA which was derogatory to Caritas. At the time he is purported to have signed this statement, the ex-Director was an old man, literally on his death-bed, and scarcely conscious of what he was doing. Nonetheless, before he died, he had a period of lucidity, and he repudiated the forced statement. His successor, the priest Dr. Vilim NUK, was recently arrested in Zagreb for reasons unknown, but probably because of his “crimes” as Director of this outstanding agency of charity.
In so far as the Communists can affect it, even private charity is abolished in Yugoslavia. A particularly insidious method is being used to discourage Bishops, priests and religious from helping indigent people through gifts of money or food, clothing and medicines. Agents provocateurs are constantly going about soliciting alms; if a Churchman gives help, he is liable to be arrested under the accusation of helping the rebels in the woods, and to be given a severe prison sentence. A revolting instance of this campaign against even private charity by priests will be found in the case of Monsignor Matthias PETLIC, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Belgrade, who is now serving a sentence of four years in jail because he gave 300 dinars to one of these agents provocateurs. Fake priests and nuns are often used for this nefarious type of persecution. According to information received at the Nunciature, at least a score of priests and religious, many of them Sisters, have been sentenced to jail through this ignoble device. The effort of the Communists to put a stop to private charity is significant evidence of the lengths to which they will go to undermine the influence of the Church to separate Churchmen from the people. It is the method of the Iron Curtain adapted to use inside the country.
As is usual when the Communists suppress institutions, they move in to fill the vacuum with their own Marxist substitutes. When Sisters are expelled from the orphanages, homes for the aged, hospitals, etc., the buildings are occupied often for the same purposes but under new direction. As a result of the war, the number of dependent children has greatly increased. Thus, thousands of unspecified children are now being brought up under the Communist system. They are not permitted to go to Church, to say prayers, to frequent the Sacraments; they are taught Communist hymns, they are coached to insult priests and religious, they are told that there is no God – nema Boga. Terribly revealing are the cases which commonly occur at Split where these little children are housed in an orphanage which formerly was directed by the Sisters of Charity of (f. 434r) Zagreb. One small wing of the building with the Chapel is still occupied by the Sisters, ‘although they have been forbidden to have any contact with the children. When the Sisters are at Mass in their Chapel, the children of the orphanage shout blasphemies under the windows. Of course, they are taught to do this, and even compelled to do it, by their commissars. The instance could be multiplied by allusions to similar conditions in other parts of the country.
It will be seen, therefore, that not only industry, commerce, the professions etc. have been nationalized in Yugoslavia; even charity is being nationalized. The doctor, the lawyer, the merchant, the administrator, the workmen, and to an increasing extent the farmer are completely dependant on the State for a job, for clothes, for bread; but not even the poor, the aged, the fatherless, the sick can be allowed to escape from the all-embracing State. They, like the rest, must come to beg their livelihood. Of course, nationalized charity is not charity at all; charity is to love, and this word does not exist in the lexicon of Communism. They live by hate. For many pensioners on the charity of the Church, there will soon be no place in the planned economy of the scientific Marxist State. One may then expect a quiet but effective liquidation of these useless mouths. Where there is no charity, the people perish.
6. Freedom of ministration to captives and other unfortunate war sufferers
This may be the proper place to insert a word about the frustration of almost all efforts by Catholics to succor German and Italian war prisoners, Italian civilian deportees, the Volksdeutsch of the Voivodina, and those Yugoslav citizens who, for political reasons, have been condemned to prison or to death.
The Yugoslav authorities have been effectively preventing the Church from affording normal, religious and charitable care to the German and Italian war prisoners. It is true that here and there by exception Catholic chaplains who were war prisoners were permitted to celebrate Holy Mass. But in general, these prisoners were denied the consolations of their Faith even though repeated requests were made to the authorities to permit the Nunciature to organize religious services. Similarly, no answer was given to the Nunciature requests that the Holy See or its agents be allowed to send a relief mission here for the purpose of supplying physical comforts to the war prisoners. As to an information service for communications between the prisoners and their families, the Nunciature was able to receive only one answer to its representations to the Yugoslav authorities, and that answer was inadequate. The Nunciature understands from the International Red Cross, Belgrade Office, that they were little more successful, and that their movements were restricted and their efforts hampered so that they were able to accomplish little. In one communication from the Foreign Office, it was said that the lists of names submitted by the Nunciature for information about prisoners’ health, etc., had been forwarded to the “Central Tracing Office” of UNRRA. Inquiry at UNRRA revealed that the lists had never been received and that they did not have any office for prisoners of war. Even here on this subject, one is faced with the omnipresent “Communist lie”.
According to the Foreign Office, all Italian war prisoners have now (f. 435r) been repatriated. The fact that the successful negotiations to this end were conducted by Signor Togliatti and his henchmen, reveals clearly why the Yugoslav Government refused to allow the Holy See to carry on its traditional beneficence in favor of these prisoners. Selected groups of German war prisoners have also been returned to their homes during the past few months, but there are probably more than 90,000 of them still in Yugoslavia. It appears that those who have been repatriated had been inoculated with the Communist virus before they left this country.
In spite of repeated efforts, it was not possible to aid the Italian civilians who had been deported from Trieste and Venetia Giulia at the time the Yugoslav troops withdrew from those localities. The only answer received to the Nunciature’s inquiries and offers to send in a relief mission was that the matter would be investigated. Previously, the Yugoslav authorities had denied the existence of the deportees. No further information was ever given on this subject. The grim probability is that many of these poor people have been killed or have died from cold, malnutrition and neglected illness.
While the Nunciature and the local Bishops and priests have been able to afford some assistance to the Volksdeutsch in the lethal concentration camps of the Voivodina, this has been accomplished secretly; the Government has not even deigned to reply to representations on this subject. Tens of thousands of these unfortunate people have died through deliberately induced starvation and exposure. Their unforgiveable crime was double: they were Germans and they were Catholics. Local Slav and Hungarian priests, working under Monsignor Ujcic and Monsignor Budanovic, have helped and are helping them both spiritually and materially, but it has been impossible to assist the majority of the sufferers. Much of the Catholic War Relief supplies which arrived here last autumn have found their way surreptitiously into the “death camps”, and the Nunciature has despatched through sure channels all the money it had at its disposal. The fact remains that the “death camps” of the Voivodina are one of the blackest pages in modern history.
In regard to Yugoslav citizens, both clerical and lay, who have been condemned by the courts, the Church has been rendered powerless to help them. It is true that in a few cases, priests in prison have been permitted to celebrate Mass or to assist at the Holy Sacrifice. The cases which come to mind are those of the Archbishop of Zagreb at Lepoglava, and of a group of priests in the Ljubljana jail. But in practically all cases, no religious services at all are allowed to priests, religious and laypeople who are imprisoned. A typical instance is that of the large number of priests and religious at Stara Gradiska prison. Last Easter, it was necessary to bring them Holy Communion as secretly as in the days of Mamertine. The Blessed Sacrament was carried to them by a lay person who even now might be prosecuted if her deed and her name were known. Such a thing as a prison chaplain is unheard of in the Yugoslavia of the Communists. This condition has been brought to the attention of the authorities a number of times by the Nunciature, but without either reply or result.
Even in the case of those who are condemned to death, the assistance of a priest in the last hours is almost never granted. The only exception which comes to mind is that of the Sister of Charity who was executed (f. 436r) last year at Lepoglava. In some rare instances, the local Bishop or priest is able to have the Blessed Sacrament secretly administered, as for example in the case of the priests executed last year at Ljubljana; but most of those condemned to death die without benefit of clergy. Often their prayers for a priest are scoffed at by their hardened Partisan jailors. It will be recalled that the saintly Felix Niedzielski asked for a priest in his last statement before the court at Banjaluka, but the request was refused. One of the most striking cases which has come to light is that of the former Mayor of Split who was refused a priest before his execution. As he stood before his executioners, he addressed them saying that since he had been denied the opportunity of confession, he would make a public confession of his sins as a sign of his penitence. He did so in a strangely moving and dramatic scene and went to his death as he finished the Act of Contrition.
Finally, it should be remarked in this connection that the Communists go to the extreme of denying practically the right of petition for grace and clemency. People who have gone to the authorities to beg mercy for those who are imprisoned or condemned to death are told that they have no right to intervene, that they are obstructing the course of justice, that no good citizen would take an interest in one who had committed a crime against the State. Thus, those who intercede for religious or other aid for prisoners are liable to be subjected themselves to the terror. One outrageous result of this Communist attitude is that appeals are not now taken against the verdicts of the lower courts, except in the case of a death sentence. The reason for this is the fear that the superior court will impose a heavier sentence. There are instances on record in which persons who appealed a sentence of ten or twenty years in prison have been condemned to death by court of appeal.
No mention is here made of the denial of religious consolations to those who are killed without trial by the Communists. By far the majority of their victims are done away with in this manner. They are seized at night, dragged from their homes and despatched in the nearby woods or hills. The police make no investigation; there is no publicity in the newspapers. This is Communist lynch law. Countless tens of thousands of people were executed in this summary fashion during the early days of the “liberation”. For the past two months, there are reports from all parts of the land that this kind of killing is again assuming alarming proportions. It is safe to say that for every person executed after a Yugoslav mock trial, more than a score are being murdered in this unobtrusively savage manner. The perpetrators of these crimes are often the national police or militia. Their hapless victims are never granted the consolations of their Faith before death.
7. Freedom of Vocation to the Priesthood and to the Religious life
From the first, the Communists have acted on the principle that if they strangled vocations, they would ultimately succeed in weakening the Church so that its destruction would be an easy matter. The surest road to this goal is by establishing a State monopoly on education, especially secondary education. In the poisonous atmosphere of the communized schools, budding vocations are blighted and wither and die. Such is the Communist plan. To further it, they seek to make the Priesthood ridiculous and (f. 437r) odious, and to present religion as an old wives’ tale, an other world escape for the inferior, but quite unworthy of men in the age of machines. Young people are notoriously susceptible to ridicule and to the laughter of their fellows. If that is not enough, the Communists are prepared to use the weapon of terror, and they actually use it. It is a brave boy, indeed, who today in Yugoslavia declares his intention to study for the Priesthood. But such is the attraction of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, that there is no dear of vocations during the persecution; the tragedy is that most of our Seminaries have been occupied or confiscated, and there is not adequate accommodation for those who aspire to the Altar. The same is true also of novitiates of the religious communities.
Preparatory or Minor Seminaries
The following Minor Seminaries are still open and functioning: Zagreb, Split, Sibenik and Dubrovnik. It must be immediately remarked, however, that all of their buildings are occupied in large part by Partisan troops or offices of the Government. Only a small part of the locale is left for Seminary purposes. Thus, the great Minor Seminary of Zagreb which accepts students from all Croat Dioceses has had its space reduced by more than half. The Seminary authorities are obliged to run two terms of six months each to accommodate the students, so that during one six month period the students must remain at home. The Minor Seminary of Split has been completely occupied by Partisan troops, and the students share the Major Seminary. The larger part of the Sibenik Seminary is occupied by a Partisan school for children.
At the present time, the Communists are moving towards the suppression of the Minor Seminaries. Notice has been served on the Seminaries of Split and of Sibenik that it is not permitted by the law to maintain classes and student residence halls (collegi) since this is said to be an exclusive function of the State. The question is now being argued by representatives of the Bishops at the Croat capital, Zagreb. If these Seminaries are abolished, it is likely that both the Zagreb and the Dubrovnik Seminaries will not long be spared. As a matter of fact, the Dubrovnik Seminary is now only a residence hall as the students are sent out to the local gymnasium for their classes. This is not a satisfactory arrangement in view of the teaching of the State schools. It must be added that the Dubrovnik Seminary is the only one in the entire country which is not occupied wholly or at least in part.
The following Minor Seminaries have been closed through entire occupation or confiscation: Maribor, Ljubljana, Senj, Skoplje (situated at Prizren), Subotica (for the Administration Apostolic of Backa) and Sarajevo (located at Travnik). The magnitude of this disaster for the Church may be seen from the fact that there is not a Minor Seminary left in all of Slovenia, with its two great Dioceses of Ljubljana and Maribor. There is not a Minor Seminary remaining in the important provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with their Archdiocese of Sarajevo and Dioceses of Banjaluka and of Mostar, so salient as easterly bastions of the Faith. There is no Minor Seminary now in the Voivodina, another frontier province which formerly had the flourishing and well attended Seminary at Subotica. There is no Minor Seminary in Macedonia to raise up a native clergy for the mission Diocese of Skoplje. As for the Republic of Montenegro, also mission territory, the Minor Seminary at Bar has been closed because of the difficulties caused by the Communist regime, but it has not as yet been occupied or confiscated. (f. 438r)
Major or Theological Seminaries
The following Major Seminaries are still open and functioning: Zagreb, Djakovo, Ljubljana and Split. The Zagreb Seminary was for a time partially occupied by the Yugoslav Red Cross, but it is now entirely used for the training of priests. The Djakovo Seminary is also entirely dedicated to clerical education. The Ljubljana Seminary is housed in the old Seminary building, but most of the space is occupied by Partisan offices and civilian tenants who have been assigned rooms there by the Government. The Diocese of Ljubljana had just completed a beautiful new Major Seminary building, but this has been entirely occupied by Partisan troops. Since many diocesan students are pursuing their studies in Italy, the number of seminarians at Ljubljana is considerably reduced; nevertheless, the quarters are cramped and physical conditions generally unsatisfactory. At Split, both Major and Minor Seminary students are crowded into a part of the Major Seminary; as mentioned above, the Minor Seminary has been occupied by the Partisans. Because of the crowding, insufficient space is available for beds in the dormitories. A particular fiendish device has been employed by the Communists in this Seminary; on the floors occupied by them, they have installed a contagious diseases hospital for soldiers. The existence of this hospital in the same building is a constant hazard to the health of the students.
The following Major Seminaries have been closed through entire occupation of confiscation: Maribor and Sarajevo. A few Maribor theologians are studying at the Theological Faculty of the University of Ljubljana and are housed in a small building nearby. The closing of the Seminary at Sarajevo is a very hard blow because in the past it served all the Dioceses of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to others who were enrolled from the Dioceses of the lower Dalmatian Coast.
So far, the two Theological Faculties in the country, those of the University of Zagreb and of the University of Ljubljana, continue to carry on their work. Recently, however, a Government Committee recommended that these faculties be severed from the Universities, and that no further State funds be allotted for professors’ salaries and other expenses. Nothing has as yet been done about this recommendation, but the future is not promising.
In addition to the factual suppression of Major and Minor Seminaries as noted above, the education of candidates for the Priesthood suffers from many other difficulties. There is the constant noise and disturbance caused by military and civilian occupants of most of the Seminary buildings still in use. Cases have been reported in which the families of Seminarians have been intimidated in order to force them to withdraw their boys from the Seminary. Thus, for example, along the Dalmatian coast, the authorities have gone so far as to threaten parents of seminarians with withholding their ration cards. Most serious of all is the fact that there is no exemption of seminarians from the military service, nor any special consideration for them when they are called to the colors. Since the period of military service in Yugoslavia is two or three years, and since the young soldiers are subjected to a particularly rigorous indoctrination in Communist theory and practice, it will be understood that here is a prime danger to perseverance in the priestly vocation.
The Seminary of the Diocese of Križevci (Crisio) is still open and functioning at Zagreb. It accommodates both Minor and Major Seminary (f. 439r) Seminary students, the former attending the local State gymnasium, and the latter attending the Theological Faculty at the University of Zagreb. At the present time, there are not many students in this Seminary, but the exact figure is not at this moment available.
Religious Novitates and Seminaries
The Jesuit Fathers, with their Provincial headquarters at Zagreb, are still able to maintain their institutions for the training of their candidates. The Franciscan Fathers have lost some of their institutions of this kind, notably their Preparatory Seminary at Visoko, but by transferring subjects to other houses, they have been able to continue training their subjects, though in reduced numbers. The Dominican Fathers are still able to carry out in their houses the preparation of candidates for the Order. The same may be said in general of the other Orders, Capucins, Conventuals etc. whose numbers are not, however, great in Yugoslavia.
As for the contemplatives, the story is one of almost complete suppression. The two flourishing foundations of the Trappists, at Banjaluka and at Rajhenburg, have been taken over by the Government. The religious of German nationality have either returned to their country or are in prison. The Slavs, with the exception of a few who still remain in small buildings on their properties, are serving in the parishes. It is, of course, impossible for them to train candidates for their Order. The Carthusians of Pleterje have been assessed taxes which it is impossible to pay and are preparing to vacate under pressure their religious home. The training of candidates thus becomes impossible. The Cistercians have had their school at Ljubljana appropriated, but according to latest advice, they are still carrying on at their other house in Sticna, though under great difficulties. The Carmelites of Sombor have not as yet suffered especially, but their numbers are small, and they have but one house in Yugoslavia.
Among the communities of women, the preparation of candidates is reduced almost to nothing. Far from being able to accept postulants and novices, they have been obliged to send large numbers of Sisters back to their parental homes. The reason for this sad state of affairs is that the Sisters were largely engaged in works of education and of charity which have been completely suppressed by the Communists. In consequence, the great majority of their houses have passed into the hands of the State either through occupation or through confiscation. A brief glance at the available statistics will be revealing. Before the war, the Sisters of various Yugoslav communities were in charge of c. 70 secondary and professional schools; c. 90 elementary schools; c. 100 kindergartens; c. 45 residence halls (internati) for students; c. 90 institutions of charity (orphanages, asylums, etc.). The Sisters have been driven from practically every one of these institutions. Although in some cases, they are permitted to retain a small building or a part of a building, a great number of Sisters were left without a place to live; literally the Communists threw them into the streets. As a result, the Mother Houses are crowded beyond capacity. Some of the Sisters have been taken into the parishes in order to give them at least a place to lay their heads, and to make it possible for them to continue their religious life. But many others had to return to their families. In such circumstances, it can be seen why the acceptance of new vocations has come almost to a standstill.
Here once again we find ourselves faced with the “Communist lie”. In their Constitution, they guarantee freedom of religion and the freedom to conduct schools for the training of ecclesiastical personnel. In point of fact, they are making these freedoms either impossible or extremely difficult of realization. No one can fail to see how wide the gulf is between law and act, between profession and practice, between word and deed. None knows better than the Communist that the hope of the harvest is in the seed. It is for this reason that he is gradually killing the seed of vocation upon which the Church depends for its future.
On a number of occasions, the Nunciature has taken up the question of Seminaries, novitiates, etc. with the Foreign Office. They have promised to look into the question. But there has been neither reply, nor result, to these representations.
8. Freedom of persons. Persecutory acts against Bishops, priests, religious and laity
This could be a long, long chapter. It is here perhaps more than in any other phase of persecution that the Communists have created the reign of terror which for the past few years lies like a hideous incubus upon this unhappy land. Human beings instinctively shrink from pain and death. Communists know this and act upon it
Much has already been said passim in this report on the Communist persecution against persons belonging to the Catholic Church. But it will be useful to give a resume under this heading.
The clergy are subjected to the closest surveillance. Minute records are kept by police on their physical description, their past history, their movements. It is known that these records are in the form of a prescription list to be used “at the proper time”. Those who visit or are visited by them are noted and often questioned by police.
In Communist meetings, in public harangues, in newspapers and pamphlets, Bishops and priests are vilified; Sisters are held up to the public scorn. Children are taught to shout: “Popovi – lopovi” (Priests are scoundrels) when they see one passing in the streets. In railroad cars partisan soldiers and other uniformed officials indulge in filthy conversations whenever a priest is present. This has happened to several of the Bishops, as for example, Monsignors Butorac and Čule. Priests are insulted on the streets; clerks and waiters are often rude to them in stores, restaurants, etc. Father Dailey, of the Nunciature, was spat at by some young men on the streets of Belgrade. The Regent and Father Smith were refused luncheon by a surly waiter in the course of a voyage by ship from Dubrovnik to Split.
No opportunity is lost to harass the clergy; even Sisters are subjected to the most humiliating experiences. Parish houses are visited and searched at all hours of the night. Recently in Banjaluka the agents of OZNA made a thorough search of the Convent of the Precious Blood Sisters. They insisted upon violating the cloister in the middle of the night, probed under beds and bedding even when sick Sisters were unable to get up, and they left the entire Convent in a state of great disorder. One of the most dreaded experiences in Yugoslavia is the knock on the door (f. 440r) by OZNA in the dead of night.
An unending series of threats is made against the clergy in order to keep them under constant intimidation. References in Communist meetings to the person who is next on the list, summons to investigations, messages of all sorts are the means by which this intimidation is ordinarily carried on. Particularly annoying is the practice of long interrogations either in one’s home or in the OZNA headquarters; when a person is being persecuted these interrogations may continue for days or may be resumed at frequent intervals, so that the victim can never call his time his own. It will be recalled that this harassing method was used against Bishop Salis-Seewis and a number of officials of the Zagreb Curia during the trial of Archbishop Stepinac. Often the agents of OZNA make terrible threats during the interrogations, the results of which upon the state of mind of the victim can readily be imagined by anyone who knows the awful power of the police in Yugoslavia.
A large number of priests have been threatened with death. Some of them have paid no attention to these threats and have paid the price. In the Diocese of Zagreb alone, more than a score of priests have had to be transferred to other parishes or to go into hiding because of the threats against their lives by local Communists. Against this terror there is no appeal to the police; often the police themselves utter the threats.
There is frequent resort to physical violence against the clergy. In recent months these cases have been numerous. A young priest is shot at and wounded from ambush as he leaves the Church after Mass on Sunday. When he reports to the police, they treat him as if he were the criminal, recalling him a number of times for interrogation. No arrest is made although many of the people of the locality suspected the identity of the culprits. This occurred in November in the Diocese of Dubrovnik. Another priest is stoned on the threshold of his Church after the Mass on Sunday. He falls bleeding and unconscious to the ground. The Communist gang which perpetrated the attack hold back the crowd of villagers who run to aid the priest, refusing to allow them to render assistance; they chat and laugh cynically with the police. Finally, one woman breaks through the cordon and kneels beside the priest. The Communists start to drag her away. “In God’s name! Have you no hearts in your breasts”; the crowd cries; “She is the priest’s mother”. This priest survived after weeks in the hospital, but he is scarred for life. This occurred last year in the Diocese of Split. Another priest is dragged from his house at the dead of the night, beaten into insensibility, left for dead. He survives to tell the tale. This was last year in the Archdiocese of Zagreb. Another priest is stopped by two members of the militia or national police, and ordered to accompany them, walking on ahead. When he is fifty feet in advance, the militia open fire on him as if in target practice; he too is left for dead where he fell, but is later found by friends and nursed back to life. This was last year in the Archdiocese of Sarajevo. The list could run on indefinitely, but these few examples will serve to reveal the conditions under which the priests live.
More than two hundred priests, some sixty Sisters and one Archbishop are now held in Yugoslav prisons. Because of the difficulty of receiving reports, it is not possible to know the exact number. The largest group is at Stara Gradiska, the Dachau of Yugoslavia; others are at Ljubljana, (f. 441r) Maribor, Pozarevac, Nis, Zenica, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Lepoglava, etc., and in the concentration camps of Voivodina. More than fifty priests and a score of Sisters have been arrested during the period under review. The conditions of most of these prisoners is a pitiable one. Arduous and often filthy tasks are assigned to them; their diet is insufficient; they must sleep on the ground of their crowded cells; in some cases, because of the restricted space allowed to each prisoner, it is impossible to lie down comfortably. They are covered with reproaches and insults.
Noteworthy is the fact that many of these priests are offered their liberty on the condition that they will work for the Communists and inform against their brethren. A single example of this will suffice; Monsignor Cedomil CEKADA, of Sarajevo, brother of the Bishop of Skoplje, was told that he would be released if he would place himself and his pen at the service of the Government. Monsignor Cekada is still in prison and is receiving particularly rough treatment from his jailors.
Prisoners are often tortured by their jailors. A favourite method is to give them barely enough water to sustain life. This was employed against the Sisters of Charity at Gospic and is in general use. Monsignor Ivan LAKAJNAR, of Ruma, Diocese of Djakovo, had his genitals tortured and cut off before he was killed. Two Franciscans in jail at Tuzla were terribly racked and stretched to the delight of their sadistic jailors.
During the past year some twenty priests have been killed by the Communists. Most of them were executed after mock trials. Several were murdered without even the benefit of trial, as Fathers Povolnjak, Venko and Bedenik of the Archdiocese of Zagreb. Not one of them was guilty of anything other than opposition to Communism; they died for their faith and for their Croat or Slovene patriotism. Sister Zarka was shot at Gospic after undergoing terrible torture.
These outrages against Church persons are often carried out by uniformed officials of the militia. Demonstrations, threats, beatings and murders may also be the work of the so-called “activists” of the Communist Party who are especially trained in methods of terror. Among them are frequently found Partisan war cripples who are a brutally vengeful lot.
One of the characteristics of the present persecution is that it is directed against important but secondary personalities in the Church.
Perhaps because of the danger of the world protest, no Bishops have been imprisoned since the trial of Monsignor Stepinac. But three Vicar Generals have been condemned to jail during that time. They are: Monsignor Matthias PETLIC, of Belgrade; Monsignor Ivan JERIC, of Prekmurje; and Aloysius TURK, of Skoplje. The loss of these Prelates has been the occasion of added difficulty in the conduct of ecclesiastical affairs.
Finally, under this heading, reference must be made to the large number of Catholic laymen who have been harassed, imprisoned and put to death by the Communists. The great majority of those killed have been done away with summarily, without any semblance of a trial. Their only crime is their devotion to the Church and their national patriotism. When it becomes possible to gather together all the details of this (f. 443r) harrowing persecution of the faithful, it will be a sad but glorious chapter in the history of the Church. In the impossibility of establishing a statistical figure, experienced observers say that thousands of laypeople have been killed by the Communists during the past year, and that many more thousands have been thrown into prison. These are figures so shocking as to appear incredible, but they seem to be borne out by cautious sampling which has been made in a few areas. The chief difficulty in obtaining information is the fear of the people that the Communists will take reprisals against them if they dare report these killings and imprisonment. That these fears are justified is abundantly clear form the severe punishment meted out to those who are accused of relations with foreigners, or of spreading rumours derogatory to the Government. All these “offenses” are covered in the law on crimes against the people and the State. One needs only to refer to the death sentences passed on the defendants in the infamous Belgrade trial of last January.
In spite of the rigorous repression of news and the surveillance of all avenues of communication, it is commonly asserted in Croatia that since the beginning of Communist military operations in this country up to the present time, four hundred thousand Croat Catholics have been killed through the action of the Partisans. Most of these lost lives in the course of the attacks on the villages which were invariably followed by wholesale massacres. A large number were liquidated during the first year of the Communist Government. The bloody process goes on day by day, although it has diminished in intensity during the past year. The figures citied here are so appalling that they dispense the writer from further comment. It will be insufficient to point out that the luminous personality of Felix Niedzielski stands out as a symbol of what our faithful laypeople have suffered in Yugoslavia for their patriotic convictions and for their devotion to the Church of Jesus Christ.
The Nunciature has on a number of occasions made representations to the Foreign Office in favor of persecuted Catholics, clerical and lay. Assurance has been given and repeated that the full protection of the law would be extended to these people. But the killings and imprisonments have not stopped. Again the “Communist lie”. Communistica fides, nulla fides. Marshal Tito has again and again asserted that people would not be molested for political opinions, just as he told the Regent that only those priests would be prosecuted who had committed common law crimes. It is an understatement to say that these promises have not been borne out by the facts. The priests who committed common law crimes can be counted on the thumbs of one hand. All the others have been imprisoned, brutalized, killed for their Faith or for their patriotism.
9. Freedom of property tenure under the persecution
Indispensable to the proper conduct of the Church’s spiritual and supernatural mission is the possession and free disposition of adequate material means. The Communists have struck the Church a paralysing blow by abridging or unreasonably restricting her right to hold and use property. The facts will speak for themselves.
The law on Agrarian Reform limits the lands of the several ecclesiastical entities to a maximum amount of hectares. A few exceptions are made for institutions with claims based upon their historic importance. All lands over this maximum were confiscated without compensation. This law has had (f. 444r) a crippling effect on the work of the Church. The parishes are impoverished and are unable to support decently their priests, or to reconstruct the many churches destroyed during the war, or to repair those which were damaged, or to replace plates, linens, fixtures and appurtenances which were pillaged or lost. Monasteries and Mother Houses have been deprived of the farms which fed their religious. Cathedral Chapters have been forced to discontinue the Divine Office in choro because the Canons, many of them old men, must serve as Parish Priests in order to gain a meagre livelihood. Seminaries must look for other sources of revenue to carry on their vitally important work. The Mensae of the Bishops have been swallowed up by the insatiable State, and there is now no money to maintain the Diocesan Curiae, to undertake necessary extensions, or to feed the orphan and the aged.
These confiscated lands were the endowments of the Church, and they made possible the beneficent works of administration, of education, of charity and of divine worship. They were the free gifts of the people over the centuries. On a continent where movable goods have so often been pillaged in war, where gold is so often scarce or a government monopoly, where the currency has so often been debased by political changes, it is natural that an enduring institution like the Church should hold most of its endowments in land.
On the other hand, the lands of several Church entities benefited the people. They were in many cases the best worked lands in the region. The Trappists, for example, had done much to increase fertility, to introduce scientific husbandry, improve farm stock, broaden the base of farm economy. They were the teachers and models of a generation of improved farmers. And it must always be remembered that the revenue from these Church lands, which in Yugoslavia were not excessive, went to maintain the great works of Divine Faith, of human knowledge and beneficence, which are the spiritual patrimony of any civilized country.
The results of the Agrarian Reform have not been beneficial. The farms have multiplied, but the farm economy has suffered. Too many of the family holdings are now too small for efficient operation. A very large proportion of the confiscated lands were not redistributed, as promised, to the peasants, but were retained by the State as the basis for their kolkhoz system; these lands were insufficiently worked during the past year. The “colonists” brought in to take up farms, or to work the State lands did not do as well as the old owners, and this was the reason, quite as much as the somewhat inadequate rainfall, for the failure of last year’s crop. Not only did the country lose the advantage of the skilled administration of the former proprietors, but they also ceased to benefit from the good works which in the past had been supported by the revenue of the Church lands.
In Yugoslavia, the Church possessed only a modest and reasonable acreage: this was clear even from the newspaper accounts of the hearings on the Agrarian Reform Law. Only Zagreb, Djakovo, and Subotica had land holdings which might be considered disproportionate or imprudent. One or the other of the Cathedral Chapters, too, was in possession of perhaps too much land. But the amount of land taken from the Church was an insignificant part of the total expropriated. Nevertheless, the newspaper publicity was especially directed against the Church as the great and wealthy exploiter of the people.
(f. 445r) Even in the application of the Agrarian Reform Law, the Communists sought to cripple the Church beyond the clear intent of the words used in the legislation. An attempt was made, and in some cases succeeded, to interpret the law in such a way as to allow only hectares for an entire Diocese, taking no account of the various ecclesiastical entities such as mesa, Chapter, Seminary etc. The same interpretation was at times applied to a religious community; no matter how many institutions, such as Mother House, schools, orphanages, etc., conducted by the community, the Communists wanted to treat them as a unit, and allow only the number of hectares prescribed by the law for a unit.
Innumerable cases exist in which the peasants who were promised the Church lands refused to approve their expropriation from the Church. The protests of the peasants against the spoliation of the Church were so frequent in the local meetings on the Agrarian Reform that the Communists changed their tactics. Bands of “activists” were organized in each district to shout down the legal pleas of Churchmen, and to cow the peasant opposition into silence. The people did not want Agrarian Reform at the Church’s expense.
Besides land, other property of the Church has been confiscated. When there was no legal basis for such action the Communists arrested one of the administrators, condemned him to prison on a trumped up charge of collaboration, and as part of the sentence confiscated the property in question. Evidently, the distinction between owner and administrator does not exist in Marxian jurisprudence. In this way, many houses which were owned by ecclesiastical entities for revenue purposes have been expropriated. Instances are the Archdiocese and the Cathedral Chapter of Zagreb. Many of the printing-presses were confiscated in the same manner, e.g., those of the Archbishop of Zagreb and of the Yugoslav Province of the Jesuits. Even the food which was stored for use by communities of Sisters has been seized and the Sisters arrested for hoarding, although the amount of food was very small for each individual of the Community. In not one of these cases has any compensation been paid by the Government.
By far the most serious procedure of the Communists against Church property has been that by which they have deprived it of those buildings necessary to carry on its divine mission. With all its funded income cut off, the Church can still exist on the generosity of the faithful, but it must have some habitation and a home for worship, for education, for charity, for the shelter of its consecrated personnel. The Communists have gone a long way towards depriving the Church of such a habitation.
In the first place, hundreds of Churches were destroyed or badly damaged by the Partisans during the war; much of this destruction was patently deliberate and had no connection with military operations.
In the second place, a certain number of Churches have been taken over for grain storage and similar purposes; this has been particularly true on the Dalmatian Coast.
In the third place, every Catholic school, orphanage, asylum and residence hall (internal!) in Yugoslavia has been closed and their buildings (f. 446r) occupied or confiscated. In some cases, a small space has been allotted to the religious who formerly directed these institutions.
Close to 500 buildings and furnishings have been occupied or confiscated in this category.
In the fourth place, eight Seminaries have been entirely occupied or confiscated: and six Seminaries are under partial occupation. Likewise, about ten novitiates and training schools for religious candidates are either confiscated or occupied.
In the fifth place, many monasteries, like those of the Trappists, have been confiscated or occupied.
In the sixth place, the houses of some of the Bishops have been occupied, and only a very small space left for office and living quarters. Instances are those of Belgrade, Sarajevo and Ljubljana. Other Bishop’s Houses are now threatened with the same treatment.
Hundreds of Parish houses are occupied in whole or in part throughout the country. The priests are allowed often only a single room in which they must receive callers, work, eat and sleep. In cases where the whole house is occupied by Partisan soldiers or civilians, the priest is forced to find a room in the village or in the urban neighbourhood. In a few other cases, the priest is either not allowed in the village or finds that it is impossible for him to obtain a room, as e.g. at Podgorica.
In the seventh place, the Communists sometimes levy such exorbitant taxes on a building or a property belonging to the Church that it is impossible to pay them. The Carthusians are being driven out of Pleterje by this method. A tax levy of 40,000 dinars has just been made against the house of the Archbishop of Bar, and it will be difficult for him to meet it.
In the eighth place, an incalculable amount of damage is being done by the Partisans to the occupied buildings. Soldiers are usually quartered in them, and they have wrought havoc to water and sanitary installations, to furniture, works of art, etc. Innumerable cases are known of deliberate destruction of chapels and altars; sacred pictures and statues have been defaced and torn or broken. Many of the roadside shrines and crucifixes have been outraged and pulled down.
After having reduced the Church to pauperism by the methods recounted above, the Communists have been careful to cut off from Churchmen, in so far as possible, other sources of revenue. All subsidies formerly paid by the State to Bishops, Canons, Curial officials and Pastors have been discontinued. In most cases pensions are not paid to those who have a right to them. Besides, the Government maintains that it has a right to limit the collections which are taken up from the faithful both in money and in kind. By official decree, it is forbidden to collect money or produce outside the Churches. In the past it was customary for the peasants to offer a part of their harvests to the Church for the upkeep of the priests. At harvest time, collectors went around and gathered in these offerings. This is no longer allowed. Collections are still permitted in the Churches, (f. 447r) but examples are not lacking of confiscation by the local authorities of these collections. Such cases have happened, for instance, in the Diocese of Dubrovnik.
When Archbishop Stepinac last summer appealed to his people to contribute food and general supplies for the upkeep of the Zagreb Seminaries, whose sources of revenue had all been plundered, the response was instant and general. From all sections of the Archdiocese, wagons brought the produce to the Seminary. It was a veritable plebiscite of love from the faithful to their Shepherd, evidence of the people’s will that the prime work of the Church should not be discontinued. Impoverished themselves by the exactions of the Communist Government, they have generously given of their insufficiency for the future priests of the Church. When the Communist learned what was being done, they went into action, and confiscated sixty wagon loads of food supplies which were destined for the Seminary.
In conclusion of this section dealing with the persecution of the Catholic Church by overt act, it must be insisted that the foregoing enumeration is incomplete. There is nonetheless sufficient material to demonstrate that practically all the rights and liberties of the Church have been invaded by the Communist regime, and that to speak of religious liberty in Yugoslavia is a manifest perversion of the truth. Today more than ever, one must look through the words to the facts. Declarations of Constitutions, statements of political officials, propaganda for world consumption, are not the test of the existence of religious liberty for the Church of God. By that simple, homely, common-sense test, the Communist Government stands convicted of having carried on one of the most destructive, cruel and bloody persecutions of modern times.
III. Persecution of other religious groups
It may be useful here to pass briefly in review the fate of non-Catholic religious groups in Yugoslavia. Since the purpose of Communism is to destroy religion, one would expect that measures would also be taken against all who in a corporate manner express their belief in God by worship, by doctrine, by moral code. The fact that the Communists intended to proceed against all religious men and women was demonstrated symbolically in the first mass execution which took place at Zagreb in the spring of 1945. On that occasion they shot, after summary trial, two Catholic priests, one Catholic Sister, a schismatic Bishop and a Protestant “Bishop”.
The schismatic Serbian Church has suffered considerably under the Communists, although not as much as the Catholic Church. At least one of their Bishops, Mons. Ioakini of Cetinje, has been killed, as have also a number of their priests. Church property was confiscated, religious instruction prohibited, Bishops and priests subjected to many harassing and repressive measures. Since the return of the Serb Patriarch Gavrilo, there has been a partial rapprochement by the Church authorities with the Government: religious teaching has been resumed to some extent, and assurance has been given of the observance of certain Church holidays, of the grant of subsidies to the Church, of the release of priests who are prisoners, of the reopening of one Seminary. Latterly, it appears that relations with the Government have again cooled. The Serb people are (f. 448r) said to have disapproved of the compromising policy of Patriarch Gavrilo. The 35 priests in prison have not been released. “Voluntary” labor was enforced in the heart of Belgrade on the Serbian Easter. The Government presented a motor car to the Patriarch, but the large subsidies expected have not been paid.
During the course of the year, there has been persecution of certain Protestant sects. The leaders of Jehovah’s witnesses were tried and some of them condemned to death, but these sentences were later commuted to long term in prison. The sect of the Nazarenes has been harassed, and some of its officials sentenced to prison. The Baptists of the Banat have had some of their Churches burned.
IV. Present state of the Catholic Church
In spite of the terrible persecution to which they are exposed, Yugoslav Catholics are holding strongly to their Faith. Indeed, when the full story can be known and told, this epoch in their history will be a glorious one. The list of martyrs, confessors is a long one.
Their loyalty to the Holy See has not been shaken despite the efforts to win them from allegiance to Rome. The Communists have spared neither violence nor threats no blandishments but to no avail. A close and deeply affectionate contact is maintained in the face of all communication difficulties. Every word of the Holy Father is treasured in the hearts of his faithful Yugoslav children.
The Hierarchy has been strong in the face of persecution. They have the respect, obedience and love of priests and faithful. Many of them have been in prison, all of them have suffered indignity, discomfort, hardship, but their spirit is unbroken and they have refused to make any compromise on essentials. It must be added that the Ordinaries of Djakovo and of Bar have, in contrast with their brethren, shown signs of weakness and have failed to reach the high example set by the other Bishops of the country. Nevertheless, the noble figure of Archbishop Stepinac and the dignified firmness of the other Bishops have held high the prestige of the Episcopacy and called forth expressions of admiration even from the schismatics.
One of the disturbing features in the Hierarchy is the age of many of the Bishops. Monsignor Tomazic of Maribor, Monsignor Srebrnic of Krk, Monsignor Salis-Seewis, Auxiliary of Zagreb, Monsignor Mileta of Sibenik, Monsignor Bonefacic of Split, Monsignor Dobrecic of Bar, Monsignor Aksamovic of Djakovo, Monsignor Saric of Sarajevo (now outside the country) and Monsignor Budanovic, Apostolic Administrator of Backa, are all over seventy years of age. In addition, the Sees of Banjaluka and of Krizevci are vacant. In these circumstances, the pretensions of the Communist regime to a voice in episcopal nominations cannot but cause grave concern.
When the story of this persecution is finally told, the Priesthood of Yugoslavia will be in high honor. In the cities and in the exposed villages, in populous Catholic areas and in the eastern marches of the Faith, they have held the line and have not flinched before prison and torture and death. Their morale is good, their spirit determined and tenacious. The people hold them in higher esteem than ever before. The persecution has demonstrated once again the vital importance to the church of the Parish Priest. Largely due to them, the people look to the Church (f. 449r) as their salvation here below as well as hereafter.
There has been an intensive campaign by the Communists to win over the Parish Priest. They have attempted to introduce the class struggle into the Church by alleging the tyranny of the Bishops and Curial officials over the simple priests. But this effort at penetration has failed; there have been remarkably few defections. Only a handfull of priests have compromised with the Government; of these, only a minimal number have accepted Communism.
The following priests are deputies to the Skupstina of National Assembly: Stanislaus CAJNKAR, of Maribor; Joseph LAMPRET, of Maribor; Methodius MIKUS, of Ljubljana; Francis DIDOVIC, of Djakovo; Peter MASNID, of Djakovo, Ivan SALAZAN, of Kotor; Svetozar RITIG, of Zagreb. The following are known to be sympathetic to the regime: Frano SMON, of Maribor; Niko LUKOVIC, of Kotor; Ante SARE, of Sibenik, John BERAC, of Sibenik; Blase BOJMIC, of Sibenik; Francis PARO, of the Apostolic Administration of Zara. The 300 priests who have died for the Faith, and the more than 200 who are now in prison for the Faith, have made noble amends for the defection of their weaker brethren.
Because the heavy losses in the ranks of the priests through murder, prison and exile, many Parishes are now without Pastors. This is a serious situation, and it is rendered more ominous by the closing of so many Seminaries. The number of priests who will be ordained in the foreseeable future will not be sufficient to supply the great need.
Among the religious orders and congregations of men, conditions of spirit and morale are generally good. The Franciscans have suffered heavily in the persecutions due to the massacres particularly at Siroki Brijeg in the Province of Hercegovina. The other communities do not seem to have had such great losses. Many of the religious are now laboring in the Parishes.
It is known that a number of Franciscans are “national priests”, i.e. friendly to the Communist Government, and are in favour of compromise. The case of the Provincial at Zagreb, Modesto Martincic, is of course notorious. At least three other Franciscans spoke against Archbishop Stepinac in meetings on the Dalmatian Coast. Because the religious tend to be less communicative than the Bishops and Diocesan priests, it has not been possible to get precise information about them in this regard except in those cases which became public.
Religious communities of women are in a deplorable situation since so many of their houses have been taken away from them. Physical conditions in the few remaining houses are very bad due to great overcrowding, and because the Sisters have lost their means of livelihood. Many Sisters have been sent to their paternal homes by their Superiors; a few of the weaker spirits have been given dispensations and have returned to the world. But the devotion to the religious life, the patience in suffering, the indifference to Communist menace, the unwavering determination of the Sisters – all these are an example to all who see them and a spur to perseverance for Bishops, priests and people.
(f. 450r) It is consoling to observe that the spirit of the faithful has not been broken by the persecution. Some of the weaklings and opportunists have fallen by the wayside, but in general the morale of the laypeople is good. Attendance at Church and at the Sacraments is higher than ever before. Contributions to the Church are higher even though the people have been pauperized. This is true in the face of the fact that large groups of people, such as soldiers, police, functionaries, etc., are not permitted to attend Church.
A large percentage of the people are opposed to the political and economic policies of the Government. Some observers say that more than 85% of the population neither accepts Communism nor sympathises with it. Many are opposed on nationalistic grounds. Many others who are not themselves practical Church members, disapprove of the persecution of religion.
Communist penetration is to be feared most of all among the youth of Yugoslavia. The Party aims at nothing less than totalitarian possession of the bodies and souls of the young people. Every avenue of influence, with the exception of the home, has been occupied by the Communists in their determination to win youth to their cause. Schools, sports, associations, journalism, the Army – all cooperate in the indoctrination of the young. If the present system is destined to continue long, here is the real danger.
V. The prospect for the future
He would be a venturesome man who would hazard a prophecy for the future. Such a forecast would have to include political, economic and social elements, most of which are subject to the widest variation. And it would have to take account of coming developments of an international character, above all the role of Russia in the world of tomorrow. It is not too much to say that, due to geographical and military considerations, the destinies of Communism in the Balkans are almost inseparably bound to the destinies of Communism in Russia. There is also a keen realization among observers here that the trend of events in Poland is of high importance for the fate of Communism outside of Russia, and particularly among the Slav peoples.
Humanly speaking, the prospect is not bright in the near future. The Mother Land of Communism is militarily strong. Good harvests would go far to relieve the present economic crisis in Russia and among her satellites. An attempt is being made to lure the smaller countries in to their economic orbit of the Russian bloc, and to receive from the sufficient industrial goods for reconstruction. In pursuance of this policy, trade agreements are being sought with Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden; similar negotiations are going forward with Italy and France. No one can yet say whether this will lead to a fight for markets in the course of which the west will supply the Communist bloc with the means of consolidating its present position.
One may not overlook certain salient strategic facts. Today, the old bastions which stood for centuries in the path of Moscovite expansion have fallen into Russian hands. She is in Warsaw, in Prague, in Budapest, in Vienna, in Berlin. Even if the treaties force her to withdraw within (f. 451r) the next year, she will leave well sowed Communist fields behind her. The treaties in all probability will still leave her on the Oder and across the Carpathians; control of the Balkan peninsula brings her to the Adriatic and within a few miles of the Aegean. Russia is thus in a favored position to exercise pressure not only upon those already in her obit, but also upon those western European powers situated along the Mediterranean, the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Germany is prostrate; France and Italy in the throes of economic crisis and political dissension. Even without military action, there is grave danger of internal subversion by the strong Fifth Columns of German, French and Italian Communists operating in conjunction with opportunists and elements of discouragement and discontent. With or without military action by Russia, Communism could conceivable spread tomorrow to the northern, western and southern water boundaries of Europe.
Inside Yugoslavia, Communism is strongly entrenched. The great majority of the people are opposed to it, but the Marxist Government exercises strict and ruthless control over the police and the Army; they have at their orders, in addition, a band of “activists” who will go to any lengths to maintain the Communist regime. Any active opposition, even political, seems to be at the present time impossible.
The Communists are highly skilled in the strategy and tactics of maintaining themselves in a position of political power. They will not give up power without a struggle. Some observers are of the opinion, however, that there may be some hope in a policy of diluting the Cabinet by real representation for other parties, as for example the Croat Peasant Party, the Serb Republican Party and others. There have been rumors lately of a movement in this direction, but nothing has come of it to date. It will be remembered that the coalition Tito-Subasic Cabinet did not last long after the non-Communists demanded a share in power.
In the event that the economic and financial plans of this regime encounter serious difficulties during the coming months, the Communists may be obliged by force of circumstances to accept the policy of dilution referred to in the preceding paragraph. Its acceptance would presumably be the price they would have to pay for loans and machinery from the great western industrial powers. Any such dilution would probably have the effect of lessening the persecution.
Meanwhile, though Communism is firmly established in Yugoslavia, its position is not impregnable. To some extent, it is still responsive to internal public opinion. To a greater extent, it is responsive to world opinion. This situation will last as long as Yugoslavia’s economic and financial condition is precarious. The part of wisdom is for the Church to hold high the morale of Yugoslav Catholics so that they may continue to exercise an influence as part of internal public opinion. Even more important is the formation of the world opinion against the persecution of religion in this country. These two points constitute, under the grace of God, the hope of Catholicity in Yugoslavia.
Unquestionably, there was a lessening of the persecution during the year under review. A glance at the statistics proves that. But it would be easy to misinterpret this amelioration. There has been no change in purpose on the part of the Communists, but only a change of direction. The Purpose remains: delenda est Ecclesia – écrasez l’infame. The wholesale (f. 452r) massacres of 1944 and 1945 have dwindled to an occasional murder and an occasional execution, but given the complete victory of Communism, they will start again. In the interim, the Communists are trying to penetrate the Church, to win it over, to make it an instrument of the State, to separate it from Rome, to attach it to the Patriarchate of Moscow. The present lull in the persecution is merely a reprieve, a stay of execution; the death sentence still stands against the Church.
There is consolation in the knowledge that the Church is still strong in Yugoslavia in spite of past losses and present tribulations. She has as always shown great powers of resilience and of survival. A long persecution extending over years would do untold damage particularly to the younger generation. If possible, that must be avoided. In the end, of course, the Nazarene will again conquer. May God grant that the days of trial may be shortened.
dr. vlč. Bojan Ivešić
