Croatia: Pope Francis through the prism of Stepinac

Day of mourning in Croatia it was announced for Saturday, when it was planned funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican. And yet, not all the public response in that country was marked by piety, nor by mourning. Perhaps it would be an exaggeration to say that many in Croatia are looking forward to the death of that head of the Roman Catholic Church, but there is probably a significant number of those who are somehow relieved, he states. Deutsche says.

These are primarily groups inclined to extreme ethno-rightist viewpoints, and among them a special place is occupied by the higher clergy. Along with the purely secular political right-wing extremes, it was precisely the clergy who were the Pope's main opposition in Croatia.

This is not particularly prominent these days, although it is regularly mentioned in the media as an indisputable fact. Francis has often been openly criticized during the years of his pontificate, and even more tension has been generated indirectly, for example by visits by high-ranking priests to Croatia.

The Croatian bishops literally never invited that pope to visit their country. That seems unimaginable, considering how celebrated the consecutive visits of John Paul II were. However, all this is also logical if it is known that, in return, various priestly opponents of Francis from Europe and the world were invited as guests.

"Humanity will not forgive him"

"There are not many secrets about the relationship between Pope Francis and a part of the Croatian higher clergy. First of all, he was absolutely against the dominant ethno-religious matrix here, which is characterized by a mixture of ethno-totalitarianism and ethno-clericalism," Branko Sekulić, theologian and president of the Institute for Theology and Politics, told DW. In recent years, he has commented a lot on church occasions.

But, as he adds, on the other hand, it is no secret that almost all of Francis's dogmatic decisions, in the church-Catholic sense, were quite conservative, thus practically remaining in the Vatican's previous positions.

"At the same time, in a way, he allowed Catholics to think that even those people who deviate from the usual 'Vatican profile of believers' have the right to exist within the church framework. In short, he was great, because he showed humanity. And it is precisely this humanity that many will not forgive him," says Sekulić.

And these, according to his view, are those who follow "not the ecumenical, but the economic moment", those who are dominated "not by Christ, but by the crusader sentiment".

What was a pope like that who opened the door to the marginalized and oppressed, whether on racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, status, or any other basis?

Disagreements over Stepinac

"Only the enemy," Sekulić is convinced. "Because (Pope Francis) was simply 'bad for business', which takes place according to the principle of political and religious fundamentalism. As such, (that business) is to a large extent the key economic branch of the church in these areas - not only Catholic, but also Orthodox."

Controversy in the heart of Europe

"Of course," adds the interlocutor, "it's stupid and ungrateful to generalize the church, but based on everything we know about it in our region, it is certain that many have breathed a sigh of relief with Francis' death and hope that in the next pontificate they will receive their confidence. And that, based on everything that is happening in the world today, is easily possible."

Among the specific moments that came between Pope Francis and his lower-ranking colleagues in Croatia, Church historian and theologian Anna Marie Greenfelder singles out the subject of the unsuspected canonization of Cardinal Alojzij Stepinac. Moreover, the Pope invited the Serbian Orthodox Church as a partner in revising Stepinac's biography and valorizing his actions in the Second World War, as well as his cooperation with the Ustasha regime.

"After the war, the cardinal went through a certain amount of suffering," adds Grinfelder, "which should be taken into account. But I also think that his overall path does not offer a very exemplary picture of holiness."

Lack of choice

"It is an understatement to say that some in Croatia have not forgotten that," says the long-time Austrian-Croatian chronicler of the Church. In addition, she believes that Franja's reformist efforts did not take root in Croatia. "It's already visible in the names, so with the exception of Mate Uzinić, I don't see any senior member of the clergy who has similarities with Pope Francis."

At the same time, Grinfelder emphasizes, the nuncios sent from the Vatican also play a big role in all of this. "The current nuncio, Giorgio Lingua, had great merit in his earlier work in Lebanon, in reconciling different Christian currents," recalls Anna Marie Greenfelder. But he concludes: "Nevertheless, in Zagreb he somehow drowned in the gray."

At the same time, "it must be acknowledged that Kaptol struggles with the lack of a larger and higher-quality selection of people, which is a problem in almost all of Europe."

And now the entire Roman Catholic Church is facing the election of a new first man. It is assumed - if we stick to informal announcements - that it will be a solution conceptually relatively far from Franja's character and work. Some in Croatia will certainly be satisfied with that, but ordinary believers these days are clearly mourning him - the pope who came so close to them that even a large part of the Church could not stand it.