Serbian Orthodox Church – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Shame On You, Shameful and Defeated Serbia

April 15, 2022 by inavukic 10 Comments

_{Bojan Jovanovic, Photo: Screenshot} danas.rs

At this doorstep of Christian suffering that Good Friday represents, at this doorstep of Christian joy that Easter, the resurrection of Christ, brings it is fitting to be reminded that it is up to us all to contribute to the end of sexual violence, abuse and assault against children and young people. And when it comes to ending such abuse and suffering brought upon by members of the clergy and Church hierarchies, by the Church, then indeed Christians especially are morally and otherwise duty bound to assist in rooting out such evil from the temples of God on earth.

And then, when a state or its government and government politics are one with the Church, such as Serbia is and has been with the Serbian Orthodox Church, then it gives me great satisfaction to relay here that this year, 2022, a representative from a Balkan country is reportedly for the first time in history of the global fight for justice for children and young people sexually abused and violated by a Church invited to speak at the Brave Movement’s Global Survivors Action Summit to be held on 27 April 2022. The invitee is from Serbia, Mr Bojan Jovanovic, a former deacon of the Serbian Orthodox Church who has for some time now been fighting for justice for victims of sexually abused children and young people within the Serbian Orthodox Church.

As an overture for the above Summit Mr Jovanovic has presented the following on the 13th of April 2022 at the “Survivor Speak Out” global meeting organised by the Army of Survivors organisation and his paper is indeed eye-opening, worth reading and motivating towards greater efforts to end such abhorrent violence towards children and your people. Certainly, Mr Bojan Jovanovic has shown profound courage for speaking out as he does in the defence of and for justice of the vulnerable and abused.

“SURVIVOR SPEAK OUT

13.04.2022.

Paedophilia and sexual violence in the Serbian Orthodox Church, under the state protection Of Serbia

I am speaking from Serbia, from the European Midnight. There is no ray of light anywhere there. All the light has fled from the earth to heaven, and it shines upon us only from above. And yet, we who are weak in everything, as we are now, we are strong in hope and faith, in the dawn that is nigh. My soul is filled with greatness excitement in this place and on this day when I come out in front of you to express what words cannot express.

Invited to speak, and not permitted to betray your expectation, I pray to God that my speech will be a solace and joy to all who listen to me as well as to those who expect consolation.

You ask who is this man who comes from a nation that you know only by its evil. You ask why I am speaking in the wish to help people who attack me every day.

I speak because the truth cannot be known, it must be revealed and only in such a way can the unfortunate Serbian people be separated from events that pull them to the bottom.

Having nullified the sense of institutions Serbia is a state that has abolished itself and it is a waste of time to expect revitalisation of any process.

They are trying to portray the church as a community of love, unity, and unconditional trust.

Such a wrong attitude creates the feeling of security and freedom in the clergy and allows them to manipulate unhindered with their position and ideas because they are supposedly representatives of the Church. On the other side, believers are afraid to share their experience. That silence gives additional wind to the back of the clergy and that’s why we are where we are. Instead of the Church acknowledging its atrocities, accepting the reality, publicly apologise, and in such a way regain the trust of the believers, who are less and less in numbers, instead of condemning criminals from their ranks who inflicted, and still inflict, harm not only others, but also to the very institution behind which they hide, the Church has hidden itself under the wings of the political thieves who use it for compensating for the decaying social and moral system and covering up daily political mess.

Despite the constant denial of the existence of organised paedophilia and sexual abuse by the clergy of Orthodox Churches – Russian, Greek, Serbian – who want to show it as individual cases, facts tell us otherwise. The Serbian Orthodox Church is a closed institution, and its own privileged position has led directly to decades of abuse which has not been sanctioned, and paedophiles and sexual predators remain beyond the reach of the law.

Documentation is being destroyed, victims are being destroyed, victims and their families are being pressured, and corruption utilised as well. All of this further discourages victims from speaking out in public. And so, victims of violence become victims of the system or the church-political mafia. Behind the cover up stand all systems in Serbia and every authority.

After their defeat on the battlefields the Serbian people found themselves in justified political isolation and economic stagnation … but the spirits of the (great) Serbian ideology have reawakened in that the hellish plan, this time called “Serbian world”, and have once again started with the rattling of weapons ” (quote from the book “Protocols of Greater Serbian Ideology”). After returning to the public scene, the Serbian Orthodox Church did not seize the opportunity to get rid of compromised personnel and various agents in its ranks to be able to reform and return to the path of God’s mission with the help of many intellectuals who were at its disposal.

So that all its responsibility for its crimes may be abolished, the hierarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church lands in the lap of Serbian political elites who exploit it as compensation for the disintegration of the socio-moral system. In this way an ideology worse than communism emerged in Serbia.

Due to various political entanglements and complicated legacies, the Serbian Orthodox Church has so far pulled through without effective punitive measures being brought against her, and her abuse of the authority God’s mission remains unpunished for the time being. I have spoken several times before and I have extensive documentation about crimes in the Serbian Orthodox Church such as paedophilia, murder of a sexually abused child in a monastery and similar acts.

The integration of church, state and nation has led to the cover-up of decades of sexual abuse of children within the Serbian Orthodox Church, denying victims any opportunities. The victims are boys who lived in monasteries during their schooling to become priests, they found themselves at the mercy of paedophile priests and bishops. In addition to being educated in obedience and respect for the clergy, theologians were threatened with harm to themselves and their families if they told anyone about the sexual abuse. These were not empty threats.

The victims are also children who are recruited from poor families, environments where it is forbidden to talk about that, children from divorced marriages.

Other cases did not go as far as the murder of theologian Milić Blažanović, but they did cause irreparable damage to young victims who have been living with trauma for years, leading cramped lives and continue suffering from depression, anxiety, other mental illnesses, they use drugs and try to commit suicide.

The truth about the crimes of Saint Sava’s ideology within the Serbian Orthodox Church should contribute to the final liberation of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbia and the entire region from the bearers of evil that threatens the collective security and human destinies of many who have fallen victim to this crime gang.

THERE IS A REASON FOR EVERYTHING AND FOR EVERY PURPOSE THERE IS TIME UNDER HEAVEN. TIME TO BE BORN AND TIME TO DIE, TIME TO TEAR DOWN AND TIME TO BUILD.

TIME TO BE SILENT AND TIME TO SPEAK.

The church’s sexual abuse of children and young people has created a foyer of hell.

Human abysses and double morals are being opened.

For many, it is news that after a while they just google and start looking at it indifferently. Unlike many who just follow it, the victims carry that crime with them all their lives and for them nothing happens normally anymore.

There is no forgiveness for this sin from the point of view of the victims. And are the “Gods” in mantles truly untouchable or does it become a thing of the past?

LET’S NOT ALLOW CRIME TO GO WITHOUT PUNISHMENT AND REPENTANCE.

Bojan Jovanovic

Belgrade, Serbia

www.mdinainternational.org”

Written and translated by Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bojan JOvanovic, Brave Movement, Child Sex Abuse in Serbian Orthodox Church, paedphilia in Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbia, Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian state protection of paedophilia in Orthodox Church, Survivor Speak Out, The Army of Survivors

Alojzije Stepinac: From Communist False Allegations to Universal Example of Humanity

February 13, 2022 by inavukic 4 Comments

_{Blessed Alojzije Stepinac sarcophagus in Zagreb, Croatia, cathedral}

On 10 February 1960 Croatia’s Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac passed away in his house prison or confinement, having suffered several illnesses during his imprisonment. In 1953, Pope Pius XII made him a cardinal, although he was never allowed travel to the Holy See to be officially elevated. He died in 1960 of an alleged blood disorder, which was said to have been caused by the conditions he endured in jail. Recent tests of his remains by Vatican investigators show evidence he was also poisoned.

History and historical research have proven repeatedly that Stepinac was a man whose actions were opposed to the destructive tendencies of both fascist and communist regimes and whose being was burned and defaced by his enemies in order for it not to become a Catholic relic. Croatian Catholics view Pope Francis’s ambivalent relationship towards his predecessor’s spiritual patrimony is less related to issues like universal priestly celibacy or sex abuse in the Church, and much more so with the delayed canonisation of the most significant man of faith in 20^th-century Croatia.

_{Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac Oil painting Croatian Church Chicago}

On his return from last year’s visit to Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia, the Holy Father was asked about Stepinac’s canonisation, a man whom St. John Paul II declared Blessed in 1998. Francis replied: “The canonisation of Stepinac is a historic case. He is a virtuous man for this Church, which has proclaimed him Blessed, you can pray [through his intercession]. But at a certain moment of the canonisation process there are unclear points, historic points, and I should sign the canonisation, it is my responsibility, I prayed, I reflected, I asked advice, and I saw that I should ask Irinej (Head of Serbian Orthodox Church), a great patriarch, for help. We made a historic commission together and we worked together, and both Irinej and I are interested in the truth. Who is helped by a declaration of sanctity if the truth is not clear? We know that [Stepinac] was a good man, but to make this step I looked for the help of Irinej and they are studying. First of all, the commission was set up and gave its opinion. They are studying other sources, deepening some points so that the truth is clear. I am not afraid of the truth; I am not afraid. I am afraid of the judgment of God.”

Serbian Patriarch Irinej, whom the Pope calls “great”, like many of his predecessors, is a politician as much as he is a priest. Known for his nationalist statements justifying Serbian imperialism—a transgenerational project which underlies every 20th-century War in Former Yugoslavia —Irinej’s observations about Stepinac, who “did not want to hear the children’s cry” in concentration camps, are a first-class manipulation. The inaccuracies of Irinej’s statements about Stepinac and other historical phenomena were reported to Francis by the Episcopal Conference of Croatia before the Pope called him “great,” which makes Francis’s statement quite problematic.

How Pope Francis could say that both he and Irinej are interested in the truth is beyond any decent and objective person’s comprehension. Irinej as head of Serbian Orthodox Church had taken a key and leading role in falsifying Croatian history and WWII. Indeed, all Patriarchs before and after Irinej have been crucial in keeping the lies alive. Pope Francis knows this I am quite sure but what I am not sure is why does Pope Francis insists on talking to pathological liars of the Serbian Orthodox Church without even trying to make them aware that they are liars.

_{Dr Robin Harris presenting his new book “Stepinac – His Life and Times” In Zagreb, Croatia 21 October 2016 Photo: HKS (Croatian Catholic University of Croatia)}

The historical irony is not only that Stepinac was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of – on the contrary, he was not a persecutor (or even a supporter of the persecution) of the Serbian, Jewish and Roma populations, but their saviour. Relevant research in both the Croatian and English languages – including “Stepinac: His Life & Time” by Robin Harris and “When Courage Prevailed: The Rescue and Survival of the Jews in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945” and “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights” by Esther Gitman -show that books on the subject written in communist Yugoslavia do not reflect the truth about the Croatian cardinal and are an ugly fabrication of history; the kind of fabrication that we know communist regimes were capable of and insisted on passing as truthful or factual.

_{Dr Esther Gitman and her book: “Alojzije Stepinac: Pillar of Human Rights”} _{(Photo: Catholic University of Croatia)}

In May 1943, Cardinal Stepinac openly criticised the Nazis and put his own life in danger; he is knowns to have rescued thousands of Jews, Croats, Serbs, and Roma from certain death during that Second World War that was marked by racial laws and extreme intolerance. At the end of World War Two, when communists started ruling over Yugoslavia and immediately set about falsely accusing Stepinac of Nazi collaboration because he would not separate the Croatian Catholic Church from the Vatican as the Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito sked him to do. Without the right to defence in court Alojzije Stepinac was found guilty of Nazi collaboration at a mock trial, by the communist government and was convicted and sentenced sixteen years` hard labour on October 11, 1946. Archbishop Stepinac was denied effective representation and only met with his attorney for an hour before the trial. The government’s witnesses were told what to say, and the archbishop was not allowed to cross-examine them. After being convicted and sentenced, he spent five years in the notorious and cruel prison for political opponents to communism called Lepoglava, and in 1951, Tito`s government released him and ordered house imprisonment or confinement in the village of Krasic.

Even though the communist Yugoslavia government had forbidden him to resume his duties in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac was elevated to Cardinal by Pope Pius XII on January 12, 1953. In 1985, his trial prosecutor Jakov Blazevic admitted publicly that Cardinal Stepinac`s trial was an entire frame-up, and that Stepinac was tried only because he refused to sever thousand-year-old ties between Croatians and the Roman Catholic Church. On October 3, 1998 in Marija Bistrica, Pope John Paul II beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, and referred to him as one of the outstanding figures of the Catholic Church.

In his article dated 10 February 2022 published on HKV portal (Croatian Cultural Council) dr Josip Sabol wrote that “today we can convincingly speak of Stepinac as a witness of the time, as a visionary whose visions and ideas became real. Let’s compare the time in which Stepinac lived with ours today. The opposite can hardly be greater: then fascism and communism in Europe – today democracy and the rule of law. Then the Church was persecuted in the socio-cultural catacombs – today the Church in the legally guaranteed freedom of action and presence in public life. Then the Church in the spirit of Pope Pius IX. to Pius XII. – today the Church in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Then the nation-state and national consciousness as supreme cultural-political values - today transnational integrations and the globalised world.

_{Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac} _{(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)}

We could mention other contradictions between Stepinac’s and today’s time, for example contradictions in ethics, philosophy, morality. One thing is certain: the person of Stepinac and his life’s work are even more relevant today than before. His actuality and universal respect are proved by his beatification. Its universal value and greatness for today’s world and for the further development of the culture of life and salvation in today’s civilisation is proved by the unusual, incomprehensible, and unfounded opposition to the elevation of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac to the altar of holiness by certain circles of society and politics. It is incomprehensible to a Catholic of a critical and open spirit how these unusual pressures on the Catholic Church, specifically on the Pope, could have stopped the already positive process of canonisation of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac.”

I have written before about the utterly unfair and painful moves towards the Catholic faith that Pope Francis has taken in the process of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac’s canonisation by requiring the Serbian Orthodox’s Church’s input (or blessing) when he knows very well that the Serbian Orthodox Church had moulded and controlled Serbian history of aggression towards Croats and falsifying Croatian history particularly that of WWII. If Pope Francis thinks that Stepinac’s WWII role has been one of compromised, then the Pope has a duty towards the Croatian people not to permit Croatia’s enemy and aggressor to help decide upon Stepinac’s canonisation.

Obviously, this is a purely political activity of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia and towards Croatia. The Vatican needs to know that, and it probably does and hence, regretfully, a very visible distancing of many Croatians from the Catholic Church. Catholics in Croatia are asking for an end to the politicking of Croatia’s enemies on the issue of what is sacred and most sacred to the Croatian people and its history. Pope Pius XII proved a completely different attitude towards the Catholic Croatian people by awarding the honour of Cardinal to Archbishop Stepinac in the most difficult circumstances of his life. Pope John Paul II proved the excellence of the attitude of the Holy See towards the Croats by beatifying Cardinal Stepinac. At that time, the world public proved its belief in the truth of everything that was happening in communist Croatia as part of communist Yugoslavia. The American Archbishop Fulton John Sheen is known to have said of Alojzije Stepinac that “He entered the courtroom as the Archbishop of Zagreb and left the courtroom as a universal example of humanity and as the spiritual leader of his Croatian people.”

_{Dr Esther Gitman 2019 in Zagreb Cathedral paying respect at the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac sarcophagus} _{(Photo: Ina Vukic)}

The inclusion of a non-Catholic religious leader in the process of proclaiming a Catholic saint is to my knowledge unprecedented. Besides writing directly to Pope Francis , receipt of which letter was acknowledged and besides writing several articles on the issue of this ugly, unprecedented canonisation process, which alienates the faithful from their church both spiritually and physically, I am confident many others have pleaded with Pope Frances to stop this ugly madness. Sadly, Francis seems to have initiated an unprecedented number of precedents in the Catholic Church so much so that I have no memory of Catholic people resenting, showing bitter disappointments in the precedents that do not appear to be founded on the faith and Church we have known all our lives.

In a closing statement at the 1946 trial, Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac said in court: “My conscience is clear, and the future will show that I was right.” And he was right. Historical research and fact findings have unequivocally yielded proclamations of his innocence and for years now Pope Francis has evidently not been able to bring himself to seeing truth! Let’s pray he does! Soon! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Alojzije Stepinac, Canonisation of Alojzije Stepinac, Communist Yugoslavia, Death of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, Esther Gitman, Interference with canonisation, Josip Sabol, Patriarch Irinej, Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II, Robin Harris, Serbian Orthodox Church

Porphyry Should Spread messages of Peace From Serbia Not Croatia

September 19, 2021 by inavukic 6 Comments

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), Patriarch Porphyry, said a few months ago in Jasenovac that the place should be the foundation from which messages of peace will spread. At the same time he gave a sermon in Jasenovac, Croatia, the site of WWII camp associated with the Holocaust and enormous fabrications of victim numbers to aid communist and Serb propaganda against Croatia. “Human evil is few where it has shown its ugliest side as in this place.” wider and wider and further “, said Porphyry in a sermon in February 2021 in the church in Jasenovac, the Hina agency reported.

During the past week, 15 September, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porphyry, led the liturgy in the monastery of St. John the Baptist in Jasenovac, Croatia, after which he said that the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Jasenovac never gathered to do mathematics, that is, who did more harm than memory, prayer and reverence for the whole the human race and that nothing like it ever happens to anyone again.

Given that WWII Serbia was among the first European countries to declare itself “Jew Free” or “Judenfrei” (May to August 1942) by exterminating some 94% of its Jews, given that it was Serbia that attacked Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990’s and committed acts of genocide in both countries, Porphyry would have done justice to humanity had he said that Belgrade (not Jasenovac in Croatia) should be the places from where messages of peace should be spread. But no, this he will not say because the Serbian Orthodox Church is the guiding “light” on the path to Serbia’s fabrications of history and its denial of its own horrendous crimes on other countries’ territories.

Porphyry’s or Serbian Orthodox Church’s train of intent continues the pathetic and repulsive road of blaming others, particularly Croatia, for all the Holocaust and unlawful killings in Yugoslavia region during WWII and covering up, lying profusely about WWII Serbia, lying profusely about its genocide over Croats and Bosniaks in the 1990’s…. So, given my last couple of posts regarding the “mocking of the Holocaust” and falsification of history it is important to keep in mind and keep telling the world the following part of an editorial published in 1995 “Serbian portrayal of Serbia’s ‘Holocaust Decency’ is historical revisionism”:

“Fully six months before the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia, Serbia had issued legislation restricting Jewish participation in the economy and university enrolment. One year later on 22 October 1941, the rabidly antisemitic ‘Grand Anti-Masonic Exhibit’ opened in occupied Belgrade, funded by the city of Belgrade. The central theme was an alleged Jewish-Communist-Masonic plot for world domination. Newspapers such as Obnova (Renewal) and Naša Borba (Our Struggle) praised this exhibit, proclaiming that Jews were the ancient enemies of the Serbian people and that Serbs should not wait for the Germans to begin the extermination of the Jews. A few months later, Serbian authorities issued postage stamps commemorating the opening of this popular exhibit. These stamps, which juxtaposed Jewish and Serbian symbols, portrayed Judaism as the source of world evil and advocated the humiliation and violent subjugation of Jews.

Anti-Semitic postage stamps in WWII Serbia

Serbia as well as neighbouring Croatia was under Axis occupation during the Second World War. Although the efficient destruction of Serbian Jewry in the first two years of German occupation has been well documented by respected sources, the extent to which Serbia actively collaborated in that destruction has been less recognized.

The Serbian government under General Milan Nedić worked closely with local Nazi officials in making Belgrade the first ‘Judenfrei’ city of Europe. As late as 19 September 1943, Nedić made an official visit to Adolf Hitler, Serbs in Berlin advanced the idea that the Serbs were the ‘Ubermenchen’ (master race) of the Slavs.

Although the Serbian version of history portrays wartime Serbia as a helpless, occupied territory, Serbian newspapers of the period offer a portrait of intensive collaboration. In November 1941, Mihajlo Olčan, a minister in Nedić’s government boasted that ‘Serbia has been allowed what no other occupied country has been allowed and that is to establish law and order with its own armed forces’.

Indeed, with Nazi blessings, Nedić established the Serbian State Guard, numbering about 20,000, compared to the 3,400 German police in Serbia. Recruiting advertisements for the Serb police force specified that ‘applicants must have no Jewish or Gypsy blood’. Nedić’s second in command was Dimitrije Ljotić, founder of the Serbian Fascist Party and the principal Fascist ideologist of Serbia. Ljotić organized the Serbian Volunteers Corps, whose primary function was rounding up Jews, Bosniaks, Gypsies, and partisans for execution. Serbian citizens and police received cash bounties for the capture and delivery of Jews. Jews are, according to Serbian Chetnik Dimitrije Ljotić, a cursed people.

In his views, there are 4 methods the Jews have of ruling over other nations and the whole world, which include: Capitalism, Democracy, Freemasonry, and Marxism. He openly called for action against Jews because they were, in his opinion, the most cynical and dangerous opponents of Christian values.

The Serbian Orthodox Church openly collaborated with the Nazis, and many priests publicly defended the persecution of the Jews. On 13 August 1941, approximately 500 distinguished Serbs signed ‘An Appeal to the Serbian Nation’, which called for loyalty to the occupying Nazis. The first three signers were bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 30 January 1942, Metropolitan Josif, the acting head of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, officially prohibited conversions of Jews to Serbian Orthodoxy, thereby blocking a means of saving Jewish lives. At a public rally, after the government minister Olčan ‘thanked God that the enormously powerful fist of Germany had not come down upon the head of the Serbian nation’ but instead ‘upon the heads of the Jews in our midst’, the speaker of these words was then blessed by a high-ranking Serbian Orthodox priest. A most striking example of Serbian antisemitism combined with historical revisionism is the case of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović (1880-1956), revered as one of the most influential church leaders and ideologists after Saint Sava, founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

To Serbs, Bishop Velimirović was a martyr who survived torture in the Dachau prison camp. In truth he was brought to Dachau (as were other prominent European clergy), because the Nazis believed he could be useful for propaganda. There he spent approximately two months as an ‘Ehrenhaftling’ (honor prisoner) in a special section, dining on the same food as the German officers, living in private quarters, and making excursions into town under German escort.

From Dachau, this venerated Serbian priest endorsed the Holocaust:

Europe is presently the main battlefield of the Jew and his father, the devil, against the heavenly Father and his only begotten Son… (Jews) first need to become legally equal with Christians in order to repress Christianity next, turn Christians into atheist, and step on their necks. All the modern European slogans have been made up by Jews, the crucifiers of Christ: democracy, strikes, socialism atheism, tolerance of all religions, pacifism, universal revolution, capitalism and communism… All this has been done with the intention to eliminate Christ… You should think about this, my Serbian brethren, and correspondingly correct your thoughts, desires and acts. (Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović: Addresses to the Serbian People–Through the Prison Window. Himmelsthur, Germany: Serbian Orthodox Eparchy for Western Europe, 1985, pp. 161-162).

Written and compiled by Ina Vukic