Primitivism and Chauvinism Are Still Alive, Well, and Dangerous in the Balkans
The Balkan region is once again shaken by a fresh scandal—Hrvatski Tjednik (“Croatian Weekly”) and its Easter-week edition.
Originally Posted by UOJ-Serbia
On the front page of the Hrvatski Tjednik issue dated April 24, 2025, there is an image of Pope Francis from behind, walking away. It is captioned:
"Farewell to the Pope, he is not worth a single Croatian tear because he loved the criminal Serbian Orthodox Church more than Croatian Catholics and Stepinac."
This is how the editorial board of this so-called “only true Croatian weekly,” as it is described by editor Ivica Marijačić on his Facebook profile, decided to bid farewell to the head of the Roman Catholic Church, who passed away on April 21, 2025.
Of course, Pope Francis is being accused of persistently refusing to authorize the final, fourth step of the canonization of Alojzije Stepinac, who currently holds the status of “blessed.”
Stepinac, alongside prominent Ustaša “activists” and mass murderers, stood shoulder to shoulder as a war criminal during the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). He was responsible—as he boasted to the Pope—for the forced conversion of over 240,000 Serbs, concluding that through his efforts between the wars, especially by directing the work of the “Catholic Action,” he had prepared “the harvest of the Serbian national field” (source: Stepinac and the Catholic Action by Dr. Nikola Žutić, the foremost authority on uncovering the identity of Catholic Serbs in Croatia).
This, of course, was not his only action during the NDH. The “converted” Serbs (they were not “rebaptized”—because Catholics did not see Orthodox believers as Christians but as apostates) were not saved from what historical science has given a special name—“Serbicide.”
Stepinac took part in—organized, encouraged, and justified—mass murders and, overall, blessed Catholic clergy who directly participated in them. All these names and facts are well documented.
In his pro-Ustaša Hrvatski Tjednik and on Facebook, Marijačić calls criminals victims and victims criminals. A classic inversion of truth, wrapped in fake “morality”—something anyone can verify with a simple internet search.
It seems Mr. Marijačić himself is not lacking in personal (in)actions, though admittedly, due to circumstances, they pale in comparison to the crimes of those he considers national heroes.
We will limit ourselves to mentioning just one court ruling related to his “professional achievements” in recent years.
In a similar manner to how he characterized WWII victims and criminals, he violated the legally protected privacy of a 15-year-old girl who was the victim of gang rape and abuse in Croatia. He even went so far as to claim that the crime never happened.
He was sentenced to prison for this. The sentence was later converted to a suspended sentence, but that in no way lessens the vileness of his act.
And this is not the only questionable instance from this supporter of Stepinac’s “holiness.”
The upper section of the same front page adds another provocation:
“Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška, these are the homes of Tito’s butchers!”
According to Politika, the article also mentions Jazovka, Huda Jama, Tezno, and 1,600 other WWII execution sites, claiming they were the work of “Tito’s butchers.”
This may be news to “Mr.” Marijačić, but the communists indeed took control of numerous Nazi and collaborator crime sites at the end of the war. Taking over control of bloody Nazi—and particularly Ustaša—execution grounds, whether they were camps, pits, or mass graves, they sometimes released people, but more often imprisoned them. In Belgrade alone, there were several such camps. Staro Sajmište and Jajinci are the most well-known.
Since we can confidently assume he does not (wish to) know this—because it does not fit the narrative he spins “like a broken record” on his Facebook profile—it may be worth pointing out for those who have ears to hear.
Among the first, most numerous, and most ruthlessly tortured and killed victims of the communists were precisely the clergy, monks, and believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Without any trial, they were subjected to the most horrific tortures, mutilations, and killings both in and outside those camps.
The Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade is an excellent (and not the only) source for all those with the intellectual courage to learn the truth.
But even that, it seems, is “too far a shot” for what “Mr.” Marijačić promotes to his readers, who are neither intellectually brave nor capable of understanding such complexity—just like the many pseudo-intellectuals of pro-Ustaša orientation who came before him.
