1
Why is Jovan Culibrk, Coordinator of the Jasenovac Committee of the
Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Reducing the
Number of Jasenovac Victims?
By Academician Prof. Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic
October 21, 2010
Original text in Serbo-Croatian at:
http://borbazaveru.info/content/view/2952/1/
Regarding the article by journalist Jelena Calija published in "Politika,"
9/13/2010, under the headline "Jasenovac Victims in the Church Calendar":
After the publication of said article in the daily newspaper "Politika," the
International Commission for the Truth about Jasenovac was asked to give its
opinion on the specific allegations set forth therein.
The article was written as if all data presented by Fr. Jovan Culibrk was
presented on behalf of the Jasenovac Committee of the Holy Assembly of
Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) and as if that is the position of
the SOC; however, that is not true. The president of the SOC Jasenovac
Committee, His Grace Bishop Jefrem of Banja Luka, has said many times and
has also written to the Minister of Religious Affairs of Republika Srpska, the
Association of Jasenovac - Donja Gradina and the International Commission
for the Truth about Jasenovac that Fr. Jovan Culibrk is not authorized to speak
and act for the Jasenovac committee of the bishops of the SOC and can speak
only in his own name. All notices and communications with the Committee of
the SOC must go through the Committee's president, His Grace Bishop Jefrem.
At the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, we were told
that the Jasenovac Committee of the SOC does not have an office in the
Patriarchate and that Fr. Jovan Culibrk performs his duties from the private
apartment of a priest. The author of the article, Jelena Calija, would be much
better off if she had asked for information from the President of the Jasenovac
Committee of the SOC. We know well that the Association of Jasenovac -
Donja Gradina and the government of Republika Srpska are not satisfied with
the work and statements of Fr. Jovan Culibrk and have ceased to communicate
with him. The president of the Jasenovac Committee, Bishop Jefrem, has been
informed about this situation.
The International Commission for the Truth about Jasenovac, headed by the
late Prof. Dr. Bernard Klein of New York, in 2007 considered a report about
2
actions of the U.S.-based Jasenovac Research Institute (JRI) and its director
Barry Lituchy to conceal the truth about the Jasenovac camp and decided to
stop any cooperation with the JRI and Barry Lituchy, who was discharged from
service at the college where he was previously employed. [Translator’s note:
Lituchy was discharged from his part-time lecturer position at Kingsborough
Community College’s History, Philosophy and Political Science Department,
of which Prof. Dr. Klein was chairman. The First International Jasenovac
conference was hosted and chaired by Prof. Dr. Klein at Kingsborough in
1997.] The JRI was involved in engraving the monument to Jasenovac victims
in New York with a false inscription about the number of victims. Barry
Lituchy is responsible for this act. The JRI was specifically criticized for the
actions of its director Barry Lituchy in initiating the request to U.S. courts to
ban the distribution of the book of the proceedings of the First International
Conference on Jasenovac (held in New York) and to collect all copies of the
book from libraries and destroy them. In this book, testimonies of surviving
camp inmates were published, as well as all the discussions and papers of the
conference participants. When, in 2009, the International Commission for the
Truth about Jasenovac learned about Jovan Culibrk's cooperation with the JRI
and with Barry Lituchy, the Commission decided then to stop any cooperation
with Fr. Culibrk, to no longer invite him to international conferences and to
remove him from all committees in which he had participated. It is known to
the International Commission for the Truth about Jasenovac that Barry
Lituchy recruits his associates on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, that he
pays their room, travel expenses and fees in order to achieve his goals, which
are not in the interest of the truth about Jasenovac. One of those recruited in
this fashion was Antun Miletic, who otherwise has written several books about
Jasenovac.
Fig. 1
Fig. 1: “The Papal legate (in white), Archbishop Stepinac, Ante Pavelic (in Ustashi uniform) and his
wife, at the opening of a home for children at Tuskanac.
3
Pope Pius XII’s representative participated in most of the official and semi-official functions of
Ustashi Croatia. He was an eyewitness to the promotion of Pavelic and to Stepinac’s policies of
terrorization and Catholicization of Croatia. He knew of the atrocities and horrors taking place. He
watched the progress of the forcible conversions, was aware of the wholehearted participation of the
clergy in the wholesale massacre of thousands of Orthodox Serbs. All these things he faithfully
reported to Pope Pius XII. In addition, Croatian Bishops wrote dispatches on the Ustashi horrors to
the Pope, e.g. Dr. Ujchich, Catholic Archbishop of Belgrade.
The purpose of Homes for Children was usually to re-baptize Orthodox orphans and thus convert
them to the Catholic Church.”
Avro Manhattan, The Vatican’s Holocaust: The Sensational Account of the Most Horrifying Religious
Massacre of the 20th Century, Springfield, MO, Ozark Books, 1986. p. 98.
At its regular meeting in 2009, the International Commission for the Truth
about Jasenovac, after years of research, reported that over 700,000 Serbs,
23,000 Jews and 80,000 Roma were killed in the Jasenovac system of Croatian
camps for the extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma. Some institutions such
as the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade as well as various individuals
are trying to find the names of victims and make lists of those killed. So far
some 90,000 victim names have been collected, and Jelena Calija’s article
presents that figure as if it were the exact number of victims. The above report
by the International Commission was not mentioned in her article. In fact, no
person can ever succeed in finding out the names of unborn children taken out
of their mothers’ wombs, the names of children under one year old killed by
nuns of the Catholic Church, the names of victims thrown into the whirlpools
of the Sava, Sana, Una, Vrbas and other rivers, the names of victims who were
thrown alive into the abyss of Pacili's furnace, the names of victims who were
cooked in order to make soap from their bodies, the names of thousands of
corpses that were for months and years floating down the Sava and Danube
rivers that were sent out from Jasenovac with derogatory messages written by
their Jasenovac butchers, or the names of victims who were buried alive in the
Sava river damns [built by forced labor at Jasenovac-Translator’s note], etc.
Fig. 2
4
Fig. 2: “Monks and Friars were the backbone of the policy of forcible conversions. Many participated
in acts of terrorism. E.g. Simic Vjeckoslav, a Monk of the monastery at Knin, who killed dozens of
Orthodox with his own hands. Sidonije Solo, another Monk of the Franciscan monastery in Nasice,
deported the Orthodox population of whole villages. The Abbot of the monastery of Guntic, Father G.
Castimir, directed the massacre of hundreds of Orthodox at Glina.
Father Dr. Dragutin Kamber, a Jesuit, ordered the killing of about 300 Orthodox in Doboj, and the
court martial of 250 others, most of whom were shot.
Father Srecko Peric, of the Gorica monastery, on August 10, 1941, personally incited the massacre
of more than 5,600 Orthodox in the district of Livno.
Friars were Ustashi officers. Others Commandants of Concentration Camps. Above Ante Pavelic
during one of his periodical visits to Franciscan monasteries.”
Avro Manhattan, The Vatican’s Holocaust: The Sensational Account of the Most Horrifying Religious
Massacre of the 20th Century, Springfield, MO, Ozark Books, 1986. p. 102.
The International Commission for the Truth about Jasenovac has to draw
public attention to the criminal role of the Roman Catholic Church and its
clergy in indoctrinating and inciting Catholic Croats and Muslims, their
supporters, to commit genocide against Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
According to evidence gathered by scientists from the U.S., more than 1,400
Roman Catholic priests in the Independent State of Croatia (ISC) personally
butchered, tortured, raped and forcibly converted Orthodox Serbs. Catholic
nuns were particularly cruel to Serbian children. They tortured and killed little
children under and over the age of one. Croatia was the only country that had
death camps for small children.
Fig.3
Fig. 3: “The Vatican was well informed of what was going on inside Ustashi Croatia. Not only
because the Catholic Hierarchy sent the Pope regular reports, but because the Pope had his own
personal representative there.
The duty of the Papal Legate was to send regular and accurate information on the exertions of the
Catholic clergy and Bishops. Also on the political and military doings of the Ustashi Government and
of its leaders.
Pope Pius XII’s representative on the spot was the Papal Legate, Mgr. Marcone, who was
accredited to the Ustashi Government and to Pavelic. Mgr. Marcone was minutely briefed on every
aspect of the Catholic Hierarchy and the Ustashi collaborators. In fact, he was the spokesman, not
only of the Croatian Hierarchy when reporting to the Vatican, but equally of Pius XII when reporting
to Archbishop Stepinac and Pavelic.
5
Above, Mgr. Marcone, flanked by Archbishop Stepinac and Nazi-Ustashi officers, at a Ustashi
Meeting.”
Avro Manhattan, The Vatican’s Holocaust: The Sensational Account of the Most Horrifying Religious
Massacre of the 20th Century, Springfield, MO, Ozark Books, 1986. p. 95.
Jelena Calija’s article states, in an attempt at exculpation, that the
Archbishop of Zagreb has visited Jasenovac, for the first time. [Translator’s
note: This was the first and only visit any Catholic official ever paid to
Jasenovac, and Ms. Calija’s apparent point was that it was evidence of
contrition.] However, the Archbishop stated that he did not come there "to
apologize to anyone" for crimes committed by Catholic priests and Croatian
and Muslim butchers. The cathedral in Zagreb preserves the corpse of war
criminal Stepinac, who was proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II because
he helped Croatia to "cleanse itself" of the Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
Witnesses say that Aloysius Stepinac supported the ISC and was in charge of
the Ustasha military priests/butchers, performed forced conversions, led the
butchers to the Vatican for a pilgrimage, blessed killers whose hands were
covered with blood from the slaughtered Serbs, Jews and Roma, all of which
was proven at his trial where he was unable to provide any defense for his
actions. Pope John Paul II proclaimed Stepinac and other similar criminals as
"Blessed," and the Catholic Church wants to declare them Saints of the
Catholic Church. Stepinac and the papal representative in Croatia, Giuseppe
Marcone, supported the vote in the Croatian [Ustasha] parliament to enact the
most awful racist laws that allowed anyone to rob, rape, torture or kill any
Serb, Jew or Roma and not be punished for such deeds. (In recent years, Italian
writer Marco Aurelio Rivelli published a book on Stepinac called The
Archbishop of Genocide, which has been translated into several languages.)
From Chalija’s article, it is not clear whether the arrival of the Catholic
Archbishop of Zagreb in Jasenovac was intended to mock the innocent victims
or to bless the slaughterers and murderers. It is well known that no Catholic
pope ever visited Jasenovac, even though one of them was only a few
kilometers away from the place of mass carnage. And more recently, the
Roman popes called for the bombing of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
pleaded with NATO forces to attack Serbia, and used derogatory names for
Serbs. But still there are those in Serbia who would like to reach reconciliation
with the Roman Catholic Church, to achieve some kind of ecumenism.
Recently, there has been a prominent call for some kind of "reconciliation"
of victims and killers, that is, of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Roman
Catholic Church. Even some bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church openly
advocate or themselves engage in "dialogue" with representatives of the
6
Vatican. They want to invite the Pope to visit Serbia. If the Serbian people and
Serbian Orthodox Church permit such a visit of the Roman Catholic Pope, if
they permit the introduction of Roman Catholic liturgy into the “new”
Orthodox liturgy, if they permit the non-canonical behavior of some individual
bishops, then the Serbian people are committing a mortal sin against the
innocent victims of Jasenovac and Orthodox Martyrs.
The article published in the daily newspaper "Politika" is an example of
how the media and press in Serbia, under pressure from the West and with the
cooperation of individuals from the Serbian Orthodox Church, are creating the
false image among the Serbian people that there are some, so-called, good
intentions of the Vatican and Roman Catholic Church.
Academician Prof. Dr. Srboljub Zivanovic
President of the International Commission for the Truth about Jasenovac
London, United Kingdom
