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Magnum Crimen

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The Magnum Crimen is a book about clericalism in Croatia from the end of ninetheenth century until the end of the Second World War. The book, whose full title is Magnum crimen - pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj (The Great Crime - a half-century of clericalism in Croatia), was written by a former Catholic priest and professor and historian at Belgrade University, Dr. Viktor Novak (1889-1977).[1] The book was first published in Zagreb in 1948.[2]

Background

Dr. Novak spent more than forty years collecting documents and books to writing the book. He started collecting this material during his secondary school days, then continued it as the university student, and the seminary student in Rome, then as the university professor in Belgrade. He wrote a trilogy, of which the last part is Magnum crimen (the first two parts of are the Magnum tempus[3] and the Magnum sacerdos[4]). In 1941, after the destruction and occupation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Dr. Novak was forced to destroy all material he had collected due to the danger of being arrested and killed by the German occupying forces and their collaborators in Belgrade. He was among the first ten people arrested in Belgrade by Germans, but managed to continue working on this book after liberation of Belgrade in October 1944.

Observing the Roman Catholic Church activities in Yugoslavia for more than fifty years, the author concludes that this Church replaced the idea of service to God with service to the Roman Curia, i.e., to the government of Roman Pontificate in the role of the world leader. As a result of this idea, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Roman Catholic Church identified the Roman Catholicism to the Croatian nationhood which turned most of her priesthood into ardent Ustashe supporters.[5]

Content

The book describes the activities of the Roman Catholic clergy in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, including their intention and attempts to become above the state, to control the state and eventually the everyday lives of the common people. It has two distinct parts. The first part consists of fifteen chapters, covering the Roman Catholic clericalism from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century in Austria-Hungary, then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The second part, the last four chapters, covers the rise and fall of the Independent State of Croatia, and the active support of the Roman Catholic Church clergy.

The main doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was that (a) the clergy shall be paid by the state as the state officials; (b) the state cannot have any control over the Church; (c) the Church has right to be fully involved in the political life of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; (d) the Church doctrine/religious education shall be a part of primary and secondary school curricula; and that (e) the Roman Catholic Church curricula in the schools shall be obligatory to all pupils whose at least one parent is a Roman Catholic.[6]

To achieve these goals, the Roman Catholic Church was actively involved in preventing the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from separating the state from the Church. The Church supported clerical political parties, confronting them to other confessions, primarily to the Serbian Orthodox Church, by publicly preaching hatred against the Orthodox population and advocating Croatian and Slovene separatism and intolerance against others.

Josip Juraj Strossmayer's ideas, of which the most important one was - serving God equals to serving people,[7] created close relations between Croats and Serbs by introducing the Old Slavonic language as the liturgic language of the Roman Catholic Church in the Balkans[8] and were aggressively suppressed by the Roman Catholic clergy in Croatia and Slovenia. The clergy put the Roman Curia in between the God and the people, demanding from the Roman Catholics ultimate obedience to the Roman Curia and unconditional love of the Roman Pope.[citation needed] The clergy remaining faithful to the Strossmayer was marginalized, with the most ardent supporters excommunicated by the Zagreb archbishop.

Nevertheless, Strossmayer was embraced as a great Roman Catholic bishop by the same clergy - but his teaching was distorted or not mentioned ever. The same destiny faced Franjo Rački, Ante Trumbić, and Stjepan Radić - three Croatian politicians advocating actively and fighting for the Yugoslavism - as a common denominator of togetherness and life among the Slavic people of the kingdom of Yugoslavia. Rački was not even allowed to attend the Strossmayer's funeral ceremony - even though that he was an ordained Roman catholic Church priest and true Strossmayer's friend and follower. The Trumbić and Radić's struggle against centralism was interpreted as the Croatian and Slovene separatism support.

Dr. Novak demonstrated that even the anti-Croatian activities in the Italian Croatian and Slovene lands (as compensation for their aid in World War I) were not counteracted by the Croatian and Slovene Roman catholic clergy in Yugoslavia. Expulsion of the Croatian and Slovene clergy from these lands and their replacement by the Italians was received with silence and accepted without resistance or protest among their Catholic brethren in Yugoslavia.

Ante Pavelić's political activities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Ustashe terrorism, and the embracement of fascism were all supported by the Roman Catholic clergy in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[citation needed] Pavelić's nationalism identified Roman Catholicism to the Croatdom, which was actively supported and interpreted by the clergy [9].

The second part of this book focuses on the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, the active support of the Roman Catholic clergy to this state, and their involvement and support in the extermination and/or forceful conversion of the Serbs and extermination of the Jews and the Roma people. The book is full of testimonies and documents showing the active involvements of the Catholic clergy in supporting, organizing, and executing extermination of Serbs, Jews, and Roma people of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. One of the most bizarre events described was that Roman catholic priests in the Jasenovac concentration camp working every day on the most gruesome ways to kill the camp inmates, while they went to chapel regularly each day to pray to God.

At the end of World War II, the Catholic clergy defended themselves, claiming their opposition to forceful conversion and extermination in some letters and instructions directed to the priesthood. The book notes that these letters and directions were not public and not respected or followed. In fact, an article from "Novi list"' argued that a Jew could not be save by converting to the Roman Catholicism.

Archbishop Aloysius Stepinac is portrayed in this book as an ardent Roman Catholic crusader who publicly endorsed the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia,[10], acknowledged the Ustashe as Croatian patriots[11], defended her before the Roman Pope [12] and was responsible for the racist attitude and behavior of his clergy.[13]

Perception of the book as an academic reference

Among scholars-historians this book is accepted as a serious academic reference and as such - cited and referenced a great number of times [1],[2]. That way the book became a reference book in the libraries of many universities around the globe [3].

William Bundy gave a short survey of this book, the full text of which is: A Jugoslav historian's lengthy indictment of clericalism in Croatia over the past half-century. The latter half of the book, covering the period of "independent" Croatian state of Ante Pavelic on the basis of a wealth of material from many sources, pays particular attention to the role of Achbishop Stepinac.[14]

However, there is a number of ultimate rejections of this book. Slobodan Kljakic wrote about this book: A major piece, written by the academician Viktor Novak, "Magnum Crimen" had been placed by the Vatican on the Index librorum prohibitorum, and anathema had been pronounced against the author.[15] John Neubauer claims that this book was commissioned to aid in Tito's post war show trials.[16]

British journalist Robin Harris calls Novak's Croatian "clero-fascism" theory an exaggeration of the atrocities, done for political reasons.[17]

The book has six full editions [4] and one abridged [18]

Reference

  • Magnum crimen - pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj by Viktor Novak, Nakladni zavod Hrvatske, Zagreb 1948

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ljetopis Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti by Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti Zagreb 1979, pages 58, 673-4
  2. ^ Schmidt, Amy (1995-07-30). "Tito, Yugoslavia's demise distorted". Washington Times. p. B7. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |section= ignored (help)
  3. ^ published as Magnum tempus: ilirizam i katoličko sveštenstvo : ideje i ličnosti, 1830-1849 by Viktor Novak, Nova knjiga, Beograd, 1987
  4. ^ published as Josip Juraj Štrosmajer: apostol Jugoslovenske misli by Viktor Novak, Savez sokola kraljevine Jugoslavije, Beograd, 1941
  5. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], pages I-XV
  6. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], pages 158-159
  7. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page XIV
  8. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 257: Uvođenje starog slavenskog jezika u bogosluženje katoličkih Hrvata Strossmayer je punih pet decenija smatrao kao jedno od sredstava za zbližavanje zapadne s istočnom crkvom. Napori Strossmayera, koje je on učinio za te ideale u Rimu, Petrogradu, Beogradu i na Cetinju, ogromnih su razmjera
  9. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 9 Dr. Ivan Šarić: Mi smo Hrvati i katolici i to hoćemo da budemo. Zato se sastadosmo da pred cijelim svijetom izjavimo, od kojega nam mnogi ne daju, da se zovemo Hrvati, a drugi nam hoće da krate da smo katolici.
  10. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 551: Stepinac in his speech (complete - on pages 150-151) on April 10., 1941. Odazovite se stoga spremno ovom mom pozivu na uzvišeni rad oko čuvanja i unapređenja NDH. Poznavajući muževe koji danas upravljaju sudbinom hrvatskoga naroda mi smo duboko uvjereni, da će naš narod naići na puno razumijevanje i pomoć. Mi vjerujemo i očekujemo, da ce Crkva u uskrsloj Državi Hrvatskoj moći u punoj slobodi naviještati neoborive principe vječne Istine i Pravde.
  11. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 545 Katolički list" saopćuje, da je tom prigodom nadbiskup izrazio ne samo svoja čestitanja za obnavljanje NDH, nego je istodobno izrazio i svoje žaljenje povodom smrti njegovoga brata Petra Kvaternika, koji je kao ustaški odmentnik poginuo u borbi sa regularnim trupama jugoslovenske vojske u Crikvenici, u trenutku kada je objavljivao u tom mjestu NDH i odcjepljenje od Jugoslavije.
  12. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 887 U vec spomenutom memorandumu papi Piju XII., nadbiskup Stepinac, zalaže se za tu monstruoznost NDH, i njen upravni aparat kao za "produženu ruku Gestapoa i Ovre", pošto smatra (18. V. 1943), da se radi "o paklenom planu uništenja katolicizma na istočnoj strani Jadrana koju pripremaju neprijatelji Crkve u tim krajevima". Da bi bio što uvjerljiviji, nadbiskup Stepinac je čitav niz ustaških zločina pripisao naprosto partizanima, a zločince svećenike nastojao da odbrani od optužbi koje su doprle do samog Vatikana.
  13. ^ Magnum Crimen [1948], page 939. Msgr. Binički in "Razbojnička pećina": Mnogi su sladokusci zamjerali Ocu Domovine (tj. Anti Starčeviću) što je poznatu pasminu (tj. Srbe) nazvao "vlaškim nakotom". Kao da Vlasi nisu ljudi, van živine, koje se kote. Tko dobro luči, dobro uči. Treba dobro razlučitu stare hrvatske Vlahe - pastire od smeća što su ga Turci sa svih strana zgrnuli u ostanke drevne kraljevine Hrvatske.
  14. ^ Foreign Affairs Bibliography by Council on Foreign Relations, by William P. Bundy, Archibald Cary Coolidge, Council on Foreign Relations, Hamilton Fish Armstrong - vol. 57, no. 3 - page 340
  15. ^ A Conspiracy of Silence: Genocide in the Independent State of Croatia and Concentration Camp Jasenovac by Slobodan Kljakic Published 1991 Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia. page 35
  16. ^ Neubauer, John (2004). History of the literary cultures of East-Central Europe. John Benjamin Publishing Company. p. 164. ISBN 9027234523. Retrieved 2008-06-30.
  17. ^ Harris, Robin. "On Trial Again". Catholic Culture. Trinity Communications. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
  18. ^ Velika optužba (Magnum crimen) by Viktor Novak, Svjetlost Sarajevo 1960 (abridged)

See also

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