Aloysius Stepinac - Post-war Period

Post-war Period

See also: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito

After the war, on May 17, 1945, Stepinac was arrested. On June 2, Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito met with representatives of the Archdiocese of Zagreb. The following day, he was released from custody. On June 4 Stepinac met with Tito but no agreement was reached between them. On June 22, the bishops of Croatia released a public letter accusing the Yugoslav authorities of injustices and crimes towards them. On June 28, Stepinac wrote a letter to the government of the Croatia asking for an end to the prosecution of Nazi collaborationists (collaboration having been widespread in occupied Yugoslavia). On July 10, Stepinac's secretary Stjepan Lacković travelled to Rome. While he was there, the Yugoslav authorities forbade him to return. In August, a new land reform law was introduced which legalized the confiscation of 85 percent of church holdings in Yugoslavia.

During the same period the archbishop almost certainly had ties with the post-war Ustaše (fascist) guerrillas, the "Crusaders", and actively worked against the state. From September 17 to 22 1945, a synod of the Bishops' Conference of Yugoslavia was held in Zagreb which discussed the confrontation with the government. On October 20 Stepinac published a letter in which he made the claim that "273 clergymen had been killed" since the Partisan take-over, "169 had been imprisoned", and another "89 were missing and presumed dead". Similar numbers were later published.

In response to this letter Tito spoke out publicly against Stepinac for the first time by writing an editorial on 25 October in the communist party's newspaper Borba accusing Stepinac of declaring war on the fledgling new Yugoslavia. Consequently on November 4 Stepinac had stones thrown at him by a crowd of Partisans in Zaprešić. Tito had established "brotherhood and unity" as the federation's overarching objective and central policy, one which he did not want threatened by internal agitation. In addition, with the escalating Cold War conflict and increased concerns over both Western and Soviet infiltration (see Tito-Stalin split), the Yugoslav government did not tolerate further internal subversion within the potentially fragile new federation.

In an effort to put a stop to the archbishop's activities, Tito attempted to reach an accord with Stepinac, and achieve a greater degree of independence for the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia and Croatia. Stepinac refused to break from the Vatican, and continued to publicly condemn the communist government. Tito, however, was reluctant to bring him to trial, in spite of condemning evidence which was available. Abandoning the strive towards increased Church independence, Tito first attempted to persuade Stepinac to cease his activities. When this too failed, in January 1946 the federal government attempted to solicit his replacement with the Vatican, a request that was denied. Finally, Stepinac was himself asked to leave the country, which he refused. On September 1946 the Yugoslav authorities indicted Stepinac on multiple counts of war crimes and collaboration with the enemy during wartime. Milovan Đilas, a prominent leader in the Party, stated that Stepinac would never have been brought to trial "had he not continued to oppose the new Communist regime."