Radical Catholicism and Fascism in Croatia, 1918–1945¹

1. I wish to thank Dr Marius Turda and Dr Christian Axboe Nielsen for reading earlier drafts of this paper and for their constructive comments. The views expressed in the article are solely my own.

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Notes

1. I wish to thank Dr Marius Turda and Dr Christian Axboe Nielsen for reading earlier drafts of this paper and for their constructive comments. The views expressed in the article are solely my own.

2. John Pollard, “Conservative Catholics and Italian fascism: the Clerico‐Fascists”, in Martin Blinkhorn, ed., Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth‐Century Europe (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990), p.31.

3. Not all of the works cited here view the Ustaša movement as ‘clerico‐fascist’, although in Yugoslav historiography this was the standard interpretation. See Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), pp.233–579; Fikreta Jelić‐Butić, Ustaše i Nezavisna Država Hrvatska (Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 1977); Aleksa Djilas, The Contested Country: Yugoslav Unity and Communist Revolution, 1919–1953 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp.103–27; Holm Sundhaussen, “Der Ustascha‐Staat: Anatomie eines Herrschaftssystem”, Österreichische Osthefte, 37/2 (1995), pp.497–533; Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, Ein General im Zwielicht: Die Erinnerungen Edmund Glaise von Horstenau, Vol. III (Vienna: Böhlau, 1998); and the works of Bogdan Krizman: Ante Pavelić i Ustaše (Zagreb: Globus, 1978), Pavelić između Hitlera i Mussolinija (Zagreb: Globus, 1980), Ustaše i Treći Reich, 2 Vols (Zagreb: Globus, 1982).

4. On the early history of the Catholic movement in Croatia, see Bonifacije Perović, Hrvatski katolički pokret: Moje uspomene (Rome: ZIRAL, 1976), pp.15–46; Jure Krišto, Prešućena povijest: Katolička crkva u hrvatskoj politici, 1850–1918 (Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada, 1994); Mario Strecha, Katoličko hrvatstvo: počeci političkog katolicizma u banskoj Hrvatskoj, 1897–1904 (Zagreb: Barbat, 1997); and Antun Bozanić, Biskup Mahnic’ i crkvena gibanja u Hrvatskoj (Zagreb: Kršćanska sadašnjost, 1991). Among the English‐language works worthy of mention, see Stella Alexander, “Croatia: The Catholic Church and the Clergy, 1919–1945”, in Richard J. Wolff, Jörg K. Hönsch, eds, Catholics, the State, and the European Radical Right, 1919–1945 (Highland Lakes: Atlantic Research and Publications, 1987), pp.31–66; Pedro Ramet, “Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslavia”, in Pedro Ramet, ed., Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics (Duke: Duke University Press, 1989); and Vjekoslav Perica, Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). There is considerable disagreement over terminology in the existing literature. Some authors refer to the ‘Catholic movement’ or ‘political Catholicism’, while others employ the term ‘clericalism’ to refer to any involvement by clergy and Catholic laity in politics. Viktor Novak's polemical 1948 book on clericalism in Croatia is a representative work of communist Yugoslav historiography, which sees politically engaged Catholics of the interwar era and the Second World War as ‘clerico‐fascists’; Magnum crimen: Pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj (Belgrade: Nova knjiga, 1986).

5. Perović (note 4), pp.54–58.

6. On the Croat People's Party, see Zlatko Matijević, Slom politike katoličkog jugoslavenstva: Hrvatska pučka stranka u političkom životu Kraljevine SHS, 1919–1929 (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 1998)

7. “Treba li nam nova stranka”, Jadran, no. 79, 24 May 1919.

8. On interwar Yugoslavia, see Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins History, Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984); John Lampe, Yugoslavia as History: Twice there was a country (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Ferdo Čulinović, Jugoslavija izmedju dva rata, 2 Vols (Zagreb: JAZU, 1961); and Branislav Gligorijević, Parlament i političke stranke u Jugoslaviji 1919–1929 (Belgrade: Institut za savremenu istoriju, 1979).

9. On the Croat Peasant Party, see Mark Biondich, Stjepan Radić, the Croat Peasant Party and the Politics of Mass Mobilization, 1904–1928 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000); and Ljubo Boban, Maček i politika HSS, 1928–1941, 2 Vols (Zagreb: Globus, 1974).

10. Banac (note 8), pp.349, 354.

11. “Naš program”, Narodna politika, no. 123, 9 May 1919, p.1.

12. “Za autonomiju i ravnopravnost naroda”, Narodna svijest, no. 5, 1 February 1921, p.1.

13. “Više bratstva”, Narodna svijest, no. 20, 19 May 1920, p.1.

14. Radmila Radić, “Religion in a Multinational State: The Case of Yugoslavia”, in Dejan Djokic, ed., Yugoslavism: Histories of a Failed Idea, 1918–1992 (Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 2003), pp.196–207; and Zlatko Matijević, “Politika katoličkog jugoslavenstva, 1912–1929”, in Hans‐Georg Fleck, Igor Graovac, eds, Dijalog povijesnižara‐istorižara (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 1998), pp.155–71.

15. “K potpunom jedinstvo”, Narodna svijest, no. 6, 9 October 1919, p.1.

16. “Jugoslavija”, Narodna svijest, no. 20, 18 May 1921, p.1.

17. “Dubrovnik redivivus”, Narodna svijest, no. 39, 11 September 1923, p.1.

18. “Naš program”, Narodna svijest, no. 25, 21 May 1921, p.1.

19. “Politika”, Narodna politika, 9 May 1919, no. 123, p.1.

20. Što je Hrvatska pučka stranka i što ona hoće? Načela i program stranke (Zagreb: Pučka štamparija, 1927).

21. “Vjera i politika”, Narodna svijest, no. 9, 28 February 1922, p.1.

22. “Kršćanstvo temelj politike”, Narodna svijest, no. 35, 1 September 1927, p.1.

23. Što je Hrvatska (note 20).

24. Stjepan Sarkotić, Radićevo izdajstvo (Vienna: unknown, 1925), p.27.

25. Eugen Dido Kvaternik, Sjećanja i zapažanja, 1929–1945: Prilozi za hrvatsku povijest (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 1995), p.271.

26. Jadran, no. 55, 27 July 1922, p.1.

27. On the dictatorship as a watershed in Yugoslav history, see Christian Axboe Nielsen, One State, One Nation, One King: The Dictatorship of King Aleksandar and His Yugoslav Project, 1929–1935 (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University: 2002).

28. Most Catholic political parties disappeared in the interwar era due to the rise of fascist dictatorship and Pope Pius XI's seeming indifference to their fate. Pius XI believed that Catholics should work through schools and “Catholic Action”, rather than through Catholic political parties, to transform society. In signing concordats with Italy (February 1929) and Nazi Germany (July 1933), Pius XI accepted the dissolution of Catholic parties in those countries in return for the continued existence of Catholic Action and parochial schools.

29. Perović (note 4), p. 110. See Sandra Prlenda, “Young, Religious, and Radical: The Croat Catholic Youth Organizations, 1922–1945”, in John Lampe, Mark Mazower, eds, Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth‐Century Southeastern Europe (New York and Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004), pp.82–109.

30. Perović (note 4), pp.92–101.

31. Prlenda (note 31), p.86.

32. Ivo Protulipac, Hrvatsko orlovstvo (Zagreb: n.p., 1926), pp.18–20.

33. See Ivan Merz, Orlovstvo i prilike u Katoličkom pokretu (Zagreb: n.p., 1927).

34. See the discussion in Nikola Žutić, Sokoli: Ideologija u fizičkoj kulturi Kraljevine Jugoslavije, 1929–1941 (Belgrade: Angrotrade, 1991).

35. Perović (note 4), pp.107–108.

36. Prlenda (note 29), pp.91–93.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Perović (note 4), p.182 n. 67.

41. Ivan Oršanić, Vizija slobode (Buenos Aires: Hrvatska revija, 1979), pp.6, 20.

42. Ibid., p.25.

43. Perović (note 4), p.227.

44. Ibid., pp.195–208, 225. In 1939 Protulipac formed, in collaboration with the Croat Peasant Party and some former Crusaders, a new youth organization known as “Croat Hero” (Hrvatski junak), which was militantly nationalist and exhibited fascistic tendencies.

45. See the discussion in Rakić, “Religion in a Multinational State”, pp.201–202. The events are retold in Miloš Mišović, Srpska crkva i konkordatska kriza (Belgrade: Sloboda, 1983); and Ivan Mužić, Katolička crkva u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji: Politički i pravni aspekti konkordata izmedju Svete Stolice i Kraljevine Jugoslavije (Split: Crkva u svijetu, 1978).

46. See Rafo Rogišić, Stanje Katoličke Crkve u Jugoslaviji do sporazuma (Šibenik: unknown, 1940), pp.44–7, 65–9.

47. Perović (note 4), pp. 214–5.

48. Ivo Bogdan, Španjolska u krvi i plamenu: Dalji i bliži uzroci gradjanskog rata (Zagreb: MOSK, 1937), p.13.

49. Perović (note 4), pp.193–194.

50. Matija Kovačić, Od Radića do Pavelića: Hrvatska u borbi za svoju samostalnost (Munich: Knjižnica Hrvatske revije, 1970), p.78.

51. J. Š., “Načela korporativnoga uređenja društva po enciklici ‘Quadragesimo anno’”, Luč 30, nos. 9–10 (1934–35), pp.7–8; Karlo Grimm, “Korporacijski uređeno društvo”, Život 15, nos 8–9 (1934), pp.354–62, 398–408.

52. See Luka Vincetić, “Antisemitizam u hrvatskoj katoličkoj štampi do Drugoga svjetskog rata”, in Ognjen Kraus, ed., Antisemitizam, Holokaust, Antifašizam (Zagreb: Židovska općina, 1996), pp.54–64.

53. For a representative sample see, for example, M. S., “Srpski apetit”, Nezavisna Hrvatska Država, 24 December 1938, p.4; and “Život katolika pod turskim gospodstvom u hrvatskim krajevima”, Hrvatski narod, 7 April 1939, p.10.

54. Krunoslav Draganović, Katolička crkva u Bosni i Hercegovini nekad i danas (Zagreb: n.p., 1934); and, Ivo Pilar, Južnoslavensko pitanje: Prikaz cjelokupnog pitanja (Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1943), pp.112, 215. The latter was originally published as L. von Südland, Die Südslawische Frage und der Weltkrieg (1918, reprint Zagreb: Matica Hrvatska, 1944).

55. Ivan Oršanić, “Posljedice Versaillesa”, Hrvatski narod, 5 May 1939, p.1.

56. Ivo Guberina, “Naš katolicizam i poljska tragedija”, Hrvatski narod, 10 November 1939, p.3.

57. See, for example Andrija Živković, “Rasizam u svijetlu katoličkih nazora na svijet i život”, Katolički list, 18 August 1938, p.1; and, “Katolici i novopogani”, Katolički list, 1 December 1939, p.1.

58. Krsto Spalatin, “Prvi glasovi iz Francuske”, Hrvatska revija, 14/7 (1941), pp.382–384.

59. Dragutin Kamber, Slom NDH: Kako sam ga ja proživio (Zagreb: Hrvatski informativni centar, 1993), p.5.

60. For the standard Yugoslav Communist works on the role of the Catholic Church in wartime Croatia, see Joža Horvat, Zdenko Štambuk, eds, Dokumenti o protunarodnom radu i zločinima jednog dijela katoličkog klera (Zagreb: n.p., 1946); Branko Petranović, “Aktivnost rimokatoličkog klera protiv sredjivanja prilika u Jugoslaviji (mart 1945. ‐ septembar 1946.)”, Istorija XX veka: Zbornik radova, Vol. V (1963), pp. 263–313; Sima Simić, Tudjinske kombinacije oko NDH (Belgrade: Kultura, 1990); R. V. Petrović, Genocid sa blagoslovom Vatikana: Izjave Srba‐izbeglica (Belgrade: Nikola Tesla, 1992); Veljko D. Djurić, Prekrštavanje Srba u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj: Prilozi za istoriju verskog genocida (Belgrade: Alfa, 1991); Milan Čubrić, Između noža i križa (Belgrade: Književne novine, 1990); Milorad Lazić, Krstarski rat Nezavisne Države Hrvatske (Belgrade: Književne novine, 1991); Vladimir Dedijer, The Yugoslav Auschwitz and the Vatican: The Croatian Massacre of the Serbs During World War II (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992); and two books by Milan Bulajić, Misija Vatikana u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj, 2 Vols. (Belgrade: Politika, 1992) and Ustaški zločini genocida i sudjenje Andriji Artukoviću 1986. godine (Belgrade: Nova knjiga, 1988). Generally speaking, these views are also expressed in Hervé Laurière (pseud. of Branko Miljuš), Assassins au nom de Dieu (Lausanne: Editions l'Age d'Homme, 1951); and Edmond Paris, Genocide in satellite Croatia, 1941–1945: A record of racial and religious persecutions and massacres (Chicago: American Institute for Balkan Affairs, 1961). The most recent defense of Stepinac and the Church is provided by Jure Krišto, Katolička crkva u Nezavisnoj Državi Hrvatskoj, 2 Vols. (Zagreb: Hrvatski institut za povijest, 1998).

61. On the controversial Stepinac, see Mark Biondich, “Controversies surrounding the Catholic Church in wartime Croatia, 1941–45”, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 7/4 (2006), pp.429–457.