By Paolo Pietri
A few days ago the Archbishop of Zagreb, Monsignor Bauer, sent a message to all the Catholic priests of Yugoslavia, protesting against the supposed "persecution of the Slovenes in Italy".
In his message he says that the fate of those Slovene and Croat brothers who remained under Italy following the international treaties is no different than the fate of the Catholics of Mexico, Russia and Lithuania. Furthermore, he says that despite repeated protests from the Holy Father in defense of his persecuted brothers, the Italian authorities, "blinded by a pagan nationalism, do not want to remedy their serious offenses against natural and divine rights."
"It is clear" — continues the aforementioned monsignor, in a waxing poetic which is anything but Christian — "that as a result of these circumstances, the faith of our co-nationals is in serious danger and they run the risk of having their religion and morality completely destroyed."
On such a delicate political matter, Archbishop Bauer's intervention not only immediately arouses the impression that it arrives at a time that is ever inappropriate, but also lends itself to being interpreted as a gesture which exceeds the limits of that proper correctness towards a foreign state whose internal political systems no one is allowed to criticize, much less offend.
Aside from this, the fact is that the message contains sufficient material to exacerbate the already intense and dangerous anti-Italian agitation, which in recent times is fomented with increased vitriol by Serbian chauvinism.
In the meantime, the press in Zagreb — notoriously Masonic, notoriously in the service of the Yugoslav Regime, and always at the forefront when it comes to attacking Fascist Italy — hastened to comment on the message of Monsignor Bauer with statements supporting the archbishop's thesis, which are absolutely contrary to the reality of things. This confirms our opinion that this anti-Italian "circular" is just another one of the usual maneuvers with which the Serbian authorities are attempting to create a spirit of hostility against Italy, even among Yugoslav Catholics. In doing so, the Yugoslav press is not showing any support for the Catholic faith, but rather an absolute lack of religious sense as it tries to make Catholicism and the Church an instrument of political agitation.
This — which is the only purpose that can be attributed to the message of Monsignor Bauer — has not escaped anyone, not even Yugoslav Catholics themselves, who, knowing from experience what methods of suffocation the Yugoslav Regime has adopted to fight the Catholic Church, can in no way regard the support of the press as sincere; this is the same press which on various occasions has made attacks against the Catholic faith, against the Holy Father and against the clergy.
You don't need to dig very deep to confirm this fact. The action of the Serbian government has a clear anti-Catholic character, because, as a diffuser of so-called "integral Yugoslavism", it tends towards religious unity, but always according to the principle of Orthodox supremacy.
Among the Croats, who are deeply attached to the Roman faith, this movement towards Orthodoxy has no popular support, first of all because of their religious convictions, and second because of the staged anti-Catholic demonstrations and violence that takes place every time an opportunity presents itself.
The Serbs, aware that the Croats would tenaciously rebel against a sudden imposition of Orthodoxy, have decided to proceed slowly, step by step. And while they have intensified anti-Catholic propaganda among the population through the various nationalistic associations (Soko, Narodna Odbrana, etc.), they also decided to exploit for their own purposes the so-called Old Catholic Church (hrwatsko Staro Katolika Crkva), formed by a small number of apostate priests of the Roman rite, who have detached themselves from Holy Mother Church in order to be able to contract marriage. The Serbian government helps to spread this new "faith", especially in Croatia and along the coast, but in truth the fruits collected so far have almost no value, because very few people adhere to "Old Catholicism", and the few who do follow this sect do not do so out of conviction but only because they are eager to obtain a divorce.
In the meantime, numerous anti-Catholic propaganda publications have come to light in recent times which seek to spread the idea of Orthodoxy among Croatian Catholics; among these, undoubtedly the most characteristic is the one written by that well-known agitator of Serbism, Milan Banic, director of the Sussak newspaper Nasa Sloga, which is known for its Italophobia. (1)
(1) M. Banic "The Black International Towards Croatism and Yugoslavism" Sussak, Ed. « Nasa Sloga ».
In all of these pamphlets, whose inspiration has an obvious semi-official character, it is basically argued that the foundations of Croatian national culture arose on the Dalmatian coast, because it was in Nona that the first Catholic bishopric was built, later opposed by the "Latinizing priests" from the Roman cities of Dalmatia. With this they pretend to argue that Zagreb became the center of the national church only when the national state declined and foreign influences began to be felt.
As long as the Croatian national state — says Banic — was intact, the Croatian lands were administered from the coast and the seat of the Croatian bishoprics were always in Nona and Knin, while it was only at the time of the Hungarian penetration that the politico-religious center of Croatism was transferred to Zagreb. It is really characteristic — he adds, directly contradicting Archbishop Bauer, whose unhappy message is today exalted — that still today the archbishop of Zagreb says mass in a cathedral bearing the name of a Hungarian king, something which the citizens of Zagreb find completely natural, because, according to Dr. Bauer and Mayor Srkulj, the Croats owe their very existence to the Roman Catholic Church.
After developing these arguments, by which he attempts to demonstrate the necessity of returning the center of Croatian Catholicism to Dalmatia, "so that Zagreb, which today is the strongest antithesis of Belgrade, can have a role in national life similar to that of Ljubljana, Serajevo, Skoplje" (and saying this could not be more offensive to the Croatian soul!), the Archbishop speaks of the Eucharistic congress and expresses himself in reverent language for the authority of the Pontiff himself, who, he says, wished to organize a demonstration of Catholicism in Yugoslavia in harmony with current government policy.
But there is more: besides refusing to give the Roman Church any credit for having saved the Croats from both Venice and the Turks, Banic rebels against the title of "Bulwark of Christianity" which the Pontiff gave to Croatia, and ridicules the "petty help" of a few thousand ducats offered to the Croats for defense against the Turks. Then, taking up again the claims already widely developed last year by the press of the Yugoslav Regime, he repeats that the sudden love of the Holy See for the Croats is not selfless but is due to the sole purpose of protecting Roman Catholic interests and the Catholic clergy in Yugoslavia:
"The Austro-Yellow-Blacks repeatedly tried to Germanize the Croats and now they want to tear them from the Yugoslavian nation; the Italian chauvinists still today say that Dalmatia belongs to them and they too want to free the Croats from the "claws" of the Yugoslavian nation. The black international, which has never raised its voice against Hungarians, Germans and Italians, today jesuitically arises against the fact that the Croats have entered into the composition of the Yugoslav State. The minimum program of the black international is to force the Yugoslav State to capitulate before the Holy See, giving Catholicism a position of privilege. The maximum program, then, is identical to that of Mussolini, Horthy, Seipel and all the enemies of Yugoslavia. They want the Slovenian-Croat Catholic population to be detached from Orthodoxy and placed under a new "apostolic king", eventually emperor, who will renew the eight-century Hungarian-Croatian "brotherhood", which will be put under Catholic Austria, while Dalmatia will be given to Italy as a reward for the partial restoration of the Habsburg monarchy."In his polemical fury, the Freemason Banic attacks the Pope, he insults Blessed Osanna da Cattaro (calling her "an ignorant Orthodox peasant who died a few hundred years ago, whom the Pontiff only now remembers, which constitutes an act of aggression against the Serbian Orthodox Church"), rails against the speech delivered by Archbishop Bauer at the Eucharistic Congress, which he defines as "a temerarious clerical hoax implemented through 30-40 thousand ignorant, bigoted, old degenerates, a few thousand Franciscans", etc. In short, all the well-known attacks of Masonic anti-clericalism.
It will not be useless to recall that the Yugoslav Masonic lodges, for their part, engage in a tireless activity that is anti-Catholic and anti-Fascist and which serves as a useful instrument of political maneuvering for the Belgrade Regime.
The evidence is very numerous and constitutes an uplifting indictment against Serb agents and their inspirers. A circular from the "Jugoslavija" Grand Lodge, which we had occasion to read shortly after the conclusion of the Lateran Accords, is sufficient evidence for all.
We will reproduce here the most significant passages, which supports our contention that the official policy which inspires Masonic policy in Yugoslavia is constantly anti-Italian and anti-Catholic.
It is a long article entitled "The Pope, Mussolini and Freemasonry", published in the official Yugoslav Masonic organ, Sestar, which is printed every month and is intended for members. It is a very secretive publication, so much so that at the top it bears the words: "This must not fall into profane hands".
Here is the part of the article that is most interesting to us:
"The Pope's attempt to become, through temporal power, the first and perhaps the only religious leader and representative of God on earth, must be diligently followed by us in its development and preparation. What can we — Yugoslav Masonry — do to prevent the realization of this plan by the Pope and by Mussolini? Our young state, not yet developed, could one day become a vast field of Catholic development. We should also examine the danger that announces itself. So far it has been proven that only Masonry can successfully fight against Catholicism, and since it is preparing the ground for development in our state, and to the detriment of our state, we must vastly expand our ranks to the benefit of our state. It is necessary to create a lodge in every village, and special attention should be given to the regions where Catholics are in the majority.
A well-organized action on our part could considerably impede the activity of Catholic bishops and parish priests. We must also pay attention to the recruitment of ignorant people, since they can serve our cause: we must bring those people who share similar thoughts as us into our orbit, so that we can increase our strength and have sufficient means to fight against the propaganda of the Catholic Church in our state.
We need a lot of intellectuals: professors, public officials, writers, journalists and artists, because their ideals are close to ours and their collaboration would be invaluable to us. Together with these ideas I would also propose the formation of a small committee that should have the purpose of examining the conditions for the creation of new lodges in all sectors of our state, to elaborate a plan which will be developed in the next year.
This would be our best answer both to the pact between the Pope and Mussolini, and to the circular sent to us by the "Italia" lodge in Paris. Together with measures that will be taken by global Freemasonry, I believe that we will be able to hinder the plan and demonstrate that it was only a usual masquerade."The objective facts that we have reported here and which represent only a modest part of the entire anti-Catholic program of the current Belgrade Regime (for example, we could also mention, among other things, the persecution against young Catholics, who are systematically prevented from attending religious schools abroad; not to mention the official policy of sending only Orthodox officials to the Catholic regions of Yugoslavia, etc.), therefore demonstrate that the struggle against the Roman Church is systematic and now has an anti-Italian and anti-Fascist character, while, on the other hand, it assumes the appearance of a defense of the Serbian national church, which they claim is threatened by a Catholic front.
So how does one explain the support of the Yugoslav authorities for Bauer's message and the jubilance expressed by those same newspapers that have always harshly fought against him on every occasion?
It is a backroom tactic of Belgrade politics, which this time played a good game by relying on the cooperation of an old man who felt it his duty, in good faith, to raise his voice in solidarity with his Slovenian and Croat brothers subject to Italy, who, according to the false information spread by well-known emissaries of the Serbian Regime (and among these, first of all, the infamous Besednjak!), are supposedly suffering from unprecedented persecutions and martyrdom.
The Archbishop of Zagreb was played by the Serbs, who wanted to use him to create another weapon to fight against Italy.
In fact, it is sufficient to reflect for a moment on the spirit and letter of the message to realize that it is not only conceived and written in a distinct Serbian style, but also contains blatant contradictions as well as an absolute attack towards a foreign state.
Indeed, what would Archbishop Bauer know about the internal affairs of Italy? And how come his zealous concern is directed only towards his Slovenian and Croatian brothers supposedly being persecuted by the Italian authorities, while he shows no interest in all the other Catholic communities existing in Yugoslavia who are being tenaciously persecuted by the Pan-Serbist politicians and their agents?
All of this, in light of the well-documented anti-Catholic tendency of the advocates of so-called integral Yugoslavism, confirms, therefore, that the anti-Italian message of Dr. Bauer, if dated from the archbishop's house in Zagreb, has in fact been drawn up by other people from somewhere else. And let's not forget; once again; that up until today Serbian propaganda had claimed that Archbishop Bauer was nothing but a weapon in the hands of the Vatican!
