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Aloysius Viktor Stepinac ((クロアチア語:Alojzije Viktor Stepinac), 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was the Croatian Catholic Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death in 1960, including the genocidal rule of the Ustaše over the Axis puppet state the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) from 1941 to 1945 during World War II. He was tried by the communist Yugoslav government after the war and convicted of treason and collaboration with the Ustaše regime. He served his 16-year sentence first in prison, then confined to his home village of Krašić. He was made a cardinal in 1953. In 1998 he was declared a martyr and beatified by Pope John Paul II. His record during World War II and his subsequent martyrdom and beatification remain controversial. After serving as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian Front during World War I, Stepinac was ordained in 1930, and in 1931 became liturgical master of ceremonies to the Archbishop of Zagreb. He established the archdiocesan branch of the charity Caritas later that year, and was appointed coadjutor bishop to the see of Zagreb in 1934. When Archbishop Antun Bauer died on 7 December 1937, Stepinac succeeded him as the Archbishop of Zagreb. During World War II, on 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany, who established the Ustaše-led NDH. As archbishop of the puppet state's capital, Stepinac had close associations with the Ustaše leaders during the Nazi occupation, issued proclamations celebrating the NDH, and welcomed the Ustaše leaders. Despite initially welcoming the Independent State of Croatia, Stepinac subsequently condemned the Nazi-aligned state's atrocities against Jews and Serbs. He objected to the persecution of Jews and Nazi laws, helped Jews and others to escape and criticized Ustaše atrocities in front of Zagreb Cathedral in 1943. Despite this, Stepinac never broke with the Ustaše regime and continued to attend public gatherings at their side. After the war he publicly condemned the new Yugoslav government and its actions during World War II, especially for murders of priests by Communist militants. Yugoslav authorities indicted the archbishop on multiple counts of war crimes and collaboration with the enemy during wartime. The trial was depicted in the West as a typical communist "show trial", biased against the archbishop;〔''The New York Times'', October 13, 1946.〕 however, some claim the trial was "carried out with proper legal procedure". In a verdict that polarized public opinion both in Yugoslavia and beyond, the Yugoslav authorities found him guilty on the charge of high treason (for collaboration with the fascist Ustaše regime), as well as complicity in the forced conversions of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released to house arrest after five, with his movements confined to his home parish of Krašić. After foreign and domestic pressure, Stepinac was released from Lepoglava prison. In 1952 he was appointed cardinal by Pope Pius XII. He was unable to participate in the 1958 conclave. Stepinac died of polycythemia in 1960 while still under confinement in his parish. On October 3, 1998, Pope John Paul II declared him a martyr and beatified him before 500,000 Croatians in Marija Bistrica near Zagreb. Stella Alexander, author of ''The Triple Myth'', a sympathetic biography of Stepinac, writes about him that "Two things stand out. He feared Communism above all (especially above fascism); and he found it hard to grasp that anything beyond the boundaries of Croatia, always excepting the Holy See, was quite real. ... He lived in the midst of apocalyptic events, bearing responsibilities which he had not sought. ... In the end one is left feeling that he was not quite great enough for his role. Given his limitations he behaved very well, certainly much better than most of his own people, and he grew in spiritual stature during the course of his long ordeal." ==Early life== Stepinac was born in the village of Brezarić in the parish of Krašić in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on 8 May 1898, to the rich viticulturalist Josip Stepinac and his second wife Barbara (). He was the fifth of nine children, and he had three more siblings from his father's first marriage. His mother, a devout Roman Catholic, prayed constantly that he would enter the priesthood. The family moved to Krašić in 1906, and Stepinac attended primary school there, then attended high school in Zagreb from 1909 to 1915, boarding at the Archdiocese of Zagreb orphanage. This was followed by study at the lycée of the archdiocese, as he was seriously considering taking holy orders, having sent in his application to the seminary at the age of 16. He was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army for service in World War I, and had to accelerate his studies and graduate ahead of schedule. Sent to a reserve officers school in Rijeka, after six months training he was sent to serve on the Italian Front in 1917 where he commanded Bosnian soldiers. In July 1918, he was captured by the Italians who held him as a prisoner of war. His family was initially told that he had been killed, and a memorial service was held for him in Krašić. A week after the service, his parents received a telegram from their son telling them he had been captured. He was held in various Italian prisoner-of-war camps until 6 December 1918. After the formation of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on 1 December 1918, he was no longer treated as an enemy soldier, and he volunteered for the Yugoslav Legion that had been engaged on the Salonika Front. As the war had already ended, he was demobilized with the rank of second lieutenant and returned home in the spring of 1919. After the war he enrolled at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zagreb, but left it after only one semester and returned home to help his father in his vineyards. His father wanted him to get married, and in 1923 he was briefly engaged to a teacher, Marija Horvat, but the engagement was broken off. In 1922, Stepinac was part of the politically-conservative Catholic ''Hrvatski orlovi'' (Croatian Eagles) youth sport organisation, and traveled to the mass games in Brno, Czechoslovakia. He was at the front of the group's ceremonial procession, carrying the Croatian flag. On 28 October 1924, at the age of 26, Stepinac entered the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome to study for the priesthood. During his studies there he befriended the future Austrian cardinal Franz König when the two played together on a volleyball team. Granted an American scholarship, he went on to study for doctorates in both theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Along with his native Croatian, he was fluent in Italian, German and French. He was ordained on 26 October 1930 by Archbishop Giuseppe Palica, Vicegerent of Rome, in a ceremony which also included the ordination of his eventual successor as Archbishop of Zagreb, Franjo Šeper. On 1 November, he said his first mass at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Stepinac wanted to serve the common people, and wanted to be a parish priest. He celebrated his first mass in his home parish of Krašić on 1 July 1931, but instead of being appointed to a parish he was appointed as liturgical master of ceremonies to the Archbishop of Zagreb Antun Bauer on 1 October. He also established the archdiocesan branch of the Catholic charity Caritas in December of that year, and initiated and edited the Caritas magazine. He also temporarily administered the parishes of Samobor and Sveti Ivan Zelina. By this time, Stepinac had become a strong Croatian nationalist, but was not active in Catholic Action or the politically-conservative Croatian Catholic movement. He was considered "conscientious and devoted to his work". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aloysius Stepinac」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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