In the Center for the Renewal of Culture (COK) Robin Harris has delivered a recorded lecture in Croatian language on the commemoration day of the blessed Alojzije Stepinac who by general agreement among Croatian Catholics should get his well-deserved canonization.

You can view the lecture here.

This is mainly why Harris – known as a columnist and a former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – wanted to explain and emphasize the role and importance of Alojzije Stepinac for the Church – and for Croatia. In his lecture Dr. Harris emphasized the huge debt that all Croats – Catholic and non-Catholic – including the modern generation of Croats, who know too little about him – owe to Stepinac and to the fidelity and courage of the Croatian Catholic Church which he led. Without Stepinac’s example, integrity and sacrifices there would probably be no democratic sovereign Croatia today.

Harris is also a recipient of the Order of Danica Hrvatska in 2008 and the Andrija Buvina award for exceptional services in the promotion of Christian culture. His books include “Dubrovnik – A History”, “The Conservatives – A History” and “Not for Turning – The Life of Margaret Thatcher”. The latter one was on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

He published the book “Stepinac – His Life and Times” in 2016, and it was through the writing of that book that Harris gained an exceptional insight into the life of the blessed Stepinac. Harris – one of the rare native English speakers with excellent knowledge of Croatian – read all the previously written material, investigated the documents relating to Stepinac contained in archives in Great Britain and the USA, and researched the material on Stepinac’s relations with both the NDH and the communist party contained in the Croatian state archive, using especially the voluminous OZNA/UDBA „Dosje Stepinac“ and other secret police reports. As a result, Harris is with little doubt the best foreign-born expert on the subject.

In this lecture, you may find pleasing the sharp style of expression used by the finest British historians when covering a certain subject. The lecture goes straight into explaining the reasons for the death of the blessed Stepinac, which was covered up for a long time during the communist era, which makes Stepinac a martyr – not only for the Church but also for Croatia.

Harris problematizes the sluggishness of the canonization process of the blessed Stepinac by highlighting as a major problem the continuous orchestrated campaign of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) and explains its manifestations. It is very important to keep in mind these facts as they are still going on.

Harris says, “His fidelity to the Church, Catholic teachings and the Pope was unconditional” and thus emphasizes Stepinac’s steadfastness during all the difficult times he was going through. The author emphasizes that even in those times the blessed Stepinac always did good to the end – took care of the Church by founding new parishes, saved Jews and everyone who was in danger and continuously resisted any kind of pressure and manipulation, whether from the Karađorđević regime, the Ustasha regime or the Yugoslav totalitarian communist regime. Later in the lecture, Harris goes through the entire career and life of Blessed Stepinac, from military service in the First World War to the reception of the cardinal’s hat.

Harris talks as well about the relationships that the blessed Stepinac had with Ante Pavelić and Josip Broz Tito and how they actually unfolded during those difficult times. It is interesting to see how the blessed Stepinac, even in front of the communist court, where he was threatened with death, persisted until the end of his life in the assertion that Croats have the right to their own state.

In conclusion, Harris ends with the following quote: “All this is what Croatia owes to Stepinac and to the Catholic Church – which Stepinac served, loved and died for – and which will – God willing – sooner or later be able to venerate him, with the whole world, as another Croat canonized saint.”

 

 

Subscribe on our YouTube channel for more video content.

Follow COK – Centar za obnovu kulture on Facebook.