Archbishop Saric on his Pre-War Meetings with the Ustase
Archbishop Ivan Saric had never been intimidated by official censorship, and used the Catholic newspapers of the Sarajevo diocese he headed as an outlet for his political musings as well as his naive amateur poetry. This piece appeared a month after the Ustase took power.

 

I was with our Ustase in North and South America. The bishops there, Americans, Germans, Irish, Slovaks and Spaniards, with whom I came into contact, all praised the Croat Ustase as good, self-sacrificing believers, as godly and patriotic people... How many times have I heard the Ustase ask where they would be without their priests!

...I sang with the Ustashe with all my heart and voice the song "Our Beautiful Homeland," all with big tears in our eyes. And with eager hope in its beautiful, its sweet and its golden freedom, lifting ourselves upwards to God, we prayed to the Almighty to guide and protect Ante Pavelic for the liberation of Croatia. The good God heard and, behold, he answered our cries and supplications.

 

:: filing information ::
Title: Archbishop Saric on his Pre-War Meetings with the Ustase
Source: Sarajevski Novi List, by Archbishop Ivan Saric. Quoted in Novak, Viktor. Magnum Crimen, pp. 555-556.
Date: 1941 Added: October 2002