The Relation of Archbishop Ivan Ev. Šarić Towards the Ustasha Government Cover Image

Odnos nadbiskupa Ivana ev. Šarića prema ustaškoj vlasti
The Relation of Archbishop Ivan Ev. Šarić Towards the Ustasha Government

Author(s): Petar Jeleč
Subject(s): History
Published by: Institut za istoriju

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the relation of the Sarajevo archbishop Ivan Šarić towards the Ustasha government during the Second World War. Šarić, just like other Croatian bishops, jubilantly greeted the establishing of the Independent State of Croatia, but as opposed to some of them, Šarić never criticized the actions and crimes of the Ustasha regime, but rather remained consistent in his articles in the praise of Ante Pavelić and his administration. In public he gave strange statements such as the one that all the faithful should look up to Ante Pavelić as an example of the religious man. Šarić did not protect, either through words or actions, the persecuted citizens of Sarajevo, but he used his position in order to give the confiscated property of one Jewish family to a worthy member of the Ustasha movement. Communists and Great Serbian historians utilised this incongruous behaviour of the archbishop of Sarajevo in order to show that all Croatian bishops and clergymen were at that time united in their support for the Ustasha regime, which does not correspond to historical truth. The archbishop of Sarajevo Ivan Šarić left his archbishopric at the end of the war and emigrated abroad where he died in Madrid in 1960.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 41
  • Page Range: 107-128
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Croatian