The Trial of Dr. Aloysius Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagreb, by Betty Wallace

Aloysius Stepinac was a catholic priest and Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 to 1960. He was thus one of the most senior clerics in Yugoslavia during the Second World War, and lived and worked in Zagreb in Croatia, where a fascist government (known as the Ustase) collaborated with the Nazi's and committed numerous war crimes and atrocities. Stepinac had close ties with the Ustase leadership, and issued several proclamations supporting the Ustatse regime. Whilst he was also undoubtedly critical of certain Ustase policies, he never publicly criticised the fascist government, and continued to give communion to the Ustase leadership, even after having been told of the war crimes and atrocities they were commiting in support of the Nazi's. The second world war was a bloody and brutal period in Yugoslav history - and the Nazi's and their supporters within Croatia did despicable things. but it was also the only occupied country in Europe that managed to liberate itself - a partisan force under Tito fought the Nazi's and the Ustase and eventually managed to beat them, forcing their withdrawl from the country and liberating themselves from the yoke of nazi oppression.

Yet when the war ended Stepinac was outspoken in his condemnation of Tito and the new Yugoslav government for the crimes it had commited during the war, whilst continuing to make no mention or acknowledgement of his own role in supporting the fascist Ustase and their nazi puppet regime in Croatia.

In 1947 he was put on trial in Yugoslavia for his role during the war. But by then the cold war had broken out and Yugoslavia was seen by the west as a communist country in the Eastern Bloc. So the west condemned the trial as a communist 'show trial', and rejected the eventual verdict - that Stepinac had collaborated with the fascist Ustase regime. Indeed, subsequently their have been attempts to rehabilitate Stepinac - to the extent that in 1998 he was declared a martyr and beatified by Pope John Paul II, the first step towards sainthood!

But plenty of people still regard Stepinac as a war criminal, who supported a nazi puppet government during the war, and a considerable number of observers of the trial in 1947 reported that it was fair and just. The fact that such a man has subsequently been venerated by the Catholic Church in the way that he has perhaps says more about the Catholic Church, and the climate that dominated the cold war and the thinking of John Paul II, when communism was the number one enemy of the Church.

This booklet is a brief account of Stepinac's trial, and the author attended every single day of the proceedings. Sections in the booklet include:

• The Quisling Pavelic Regime
• Dr Aloysius Stepinac
• The attitude of the new Yugoslavia towards the Church
• The Indictment against Stepinac - including Counts I to V