VATICAN CITY
B92
Pope Francis personally stopped the canonization of Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac after a letter sent to him by Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej.
This has been stated by former Croatian Ambassador to the Vatican Filip Vucak.
According to him, a joint committee of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches will begin discussing the issue “before the summer” – but he said he could not predict when a decision might be made.
Vucak told the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti that Patriarch Irinej in his letter clearly said he believed Stepinac was a high priest who supported the NDH – the WW2-era Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia – who forcibly converted Orthodox believers (into Catholicism), and supported “racial” laws.
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