Pope Honors Croatia's WWII Cardinal

Declaring him a martyr of the faith, Pope John Paul II on Saturday honored Croatia's World War II cardinal, a hero to Roman Catholics, but long a symbol of divisions in the Balkans.

Half a million people watched with delight and gratitude as John Paul beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, elevating him to the last step before possible sainthood, in Marija Bistrica, a leading Croatian shrine to the Virgin Mary.

John Paul appealed to a country that has suffered from war and ethnic divisions "to forgive and reconcile and to purify one's memory of hatred" and "the desire for revenge."

The pope said Stepinac "having endured in his own body and his own spirit the atrocities of the communist system is now entrusted to the memory of his fellow countrymen with the radiant badge of martyrdom."

Later Saturday, the pontiff met Croatian President Franjo Tudjman at his palace in the capital Zagreb. Government officials and foreign ambassadors, including Veljko Knezevic, the ambassador of Serb-led Yugoslavia, were also present to greet John Paul.

Stepinac was hailed as a hero by Catholics for his resistance to communism and refusal to separate the Croatian church from the Vatican. But his beatification is controversial because many Serbs and Jews accuse him of sympathizing with the Nazis.

While serving as Zagreb's archbishop in 1941, Stepinac supported Croatia's German-backed fascist puppet government led by dictator Ante Pavelic. By 1942, however, Stepinac denounced the regime's genocidal policies, which led to the extermination of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies and Croat opponents.

He died at 62 in 1960 while under house arrest following his conviction on charges of collaborating with the Nazis. Stepinac's own notes and recent studies say he spoke out against the atrocities, and worked to save lives, but many Serbs still consider him a war criminal.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a U.S.-based Nazi-hunting group, also had asked the Vatican to postpone the beatification pending further study of the cardinal's actions, although some local Jews defended Stepinac.

John Paul addressed the criticism in his homily, quoting from a 1943 speech by the cardinal condemning injustices and the killing of innocents. He said Stepinac's figure summed up "the whole tragedy which befell the Croatian people and Europe in the course of this century marked by the three great evils of fascism, national socialism and communism."

"He is now in the joy of heaven, surrounded by those who, like him, fought the good fight, purifying their faith in the crucible of suffering," said John Paul, speaking from an altar before a 15-foot high portrait of Stepinac.

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON