Cardinalate
On November 29, 1952, his name appeared in a list of cardinals newly created by Pope Pius XII, which coincided with Yugoslavia's Republic Day. Yugoslavia then severed diplomatic relations with the Vatican on December 17, 1952. The government also expelled the Catholic Faculty of Theology from the University of Zagreb, to which it was not restored until the first democratic elections were held in 1990, and was finally formalized in 1996.
Pius XII wrote to Stepinac and three other jailed prelates (Stefan Wyszyński, József Mindszenty and Josef Beran) on June 29, 1956 urging their supporters to remain loyal. Stepinac was unable to participate in the 1958 Papal conclave due to his house arrest, despite calls from the Bishops' Conference of Yugoslavia for his release. On June 2, 1959 he wrote in a letter to Ivan Meštrović: "I likely will not live to see the collapse of communism in the world due to my poor health. But I am absolutely certain of that collapse."
The 1955 film The Prisoner was loosely based on József Mindszenty and to some extent Stepinac. The Cardinal character, played by Alec Guinness, was made to appear physically similar to Stepinac.
Read more about this topic: Aloysius Stepinac