NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      ZAGREB (CWNews.com) - Catholic Croatians lined up on Thursday to view the remains of a World War II-era cardinal before Pope John Paul II beatified the Croatian Archbishop on Saturday despite protests by some Jewish groups.

      Croatian President Franjo Tudjman hailed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac as a great Croatian and defender of the persecuted. "Cardinal Stepinac was one of the greatest Croats within the Croatian Church and the overall Croatian peoples during the Second World War. He decisively condemned pro-fascist moves and the crimes of the Ustashe regime ... and was also against communist methods," Tudjman said. "The very act of the beatification ... and the arrival of the Pope represents recognition not only of Stepinac, but of the Croatian Catholic Church and the Croatian nation as a whole."

      The Holy Father arrived in Zagreb on Friday for a two-day visit which reached its climax on Saturday when he beatified Cardinal Stepinac during an open-air Mass. The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris this week called for a delay of the beatification so that a third-party could investigate the cardinal to determine whether he supported the Nazi-backed fascist regimes murder of Jews, Gypsies, and Serbians.