Martyr Cardinal, Aloyisius Stepanic

Editor:  Here is a man who bore the indignities and torments of the Passion.  He was beatified by John Paul II on October 3, 1998. In honor of his birthday which is May 8, the feast of St. Victor Maurus, we present a piece written in 1947, defending this great man against his Communist persecutors.  We personally recall a University professor who taught at a Midwestern College who lamented the Beatification of this great Saint, repeating the vicious calumnies against the Cardinal repeated by his Communist hosts in Tito's Yugoslavia during the sixties.  We hope that we can do a small part in making reparation for that by this small work.  Our age needs more heroes like him. Maybe you can help Our Lord carry his Cross?

 THE PRISONER: Martyr Bishop

by Richard Grinder

This is No. 10
in Pamphlet Series on Communism
published by the Catholic Information Society

a.D. 1947

Aloysius Stepanic [Croatian: Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 –10 February 1960] is a Croatian peasant, Archbishop of Zagreb and spiritual chief of all Catholics in his native land.

In October, 1946, he was condemned by Joseph Tito, communist dictator of Yugoslavia, to sixteen years of forced labor, on the score of political activity against the State.  At this writing he is still in prison, despite the pleas and protests of millions, literally, of those who know him not as a politician but as a saintly humanitarian, the indomitable palladium of all that is best in Croatian culture.

Stepanic fought as a youth in the Austrian-Hungarian Army.  He was twice decorated by his government for valor on the Italian front.  As a Second Lieutenant on the Salonika Front, he was awarded the highest Yugoslav military decoration.

Read further, here.