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The case of Križevac pastor Stjepan Kranjčić "Soldier of the Stepinac army"
Abstract
The article presented here - accompanied by a brief introduction on the relationship between the communist authorities and the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia after the Second World War - deals with the religious activities of Father Dr Stjepan Kranjčić. From the moment of his ordination in 1943, Stjepan Kranjčić became known as an able, hard-working, uncompromising and fearless priest. During his pastoral work in Zagreb, he distanced himself from priests who were inclined to collaborate with the communist authorities in order to protect their position or because of the pressure. For this reason, he was often summoned for interrogation and tortured. One of the reasons for the communist authorities' distrust of him was his brother Dr. Matija Kranjčić, parish priest in Ozlje and catechist in Karlovac, who was accused of collaboration during the war with the Ustasha, despite insufficient (or no) evidence of such collaboration. Kranjčić's elder brother was nevertheless sentenced to death and to this day it is not known where he was murdered and buried. According to those in his pastoral field, the accusations were untrue, as Matija did not work for the occupying forces but rescued Serbs and communists - but this was not taken into account during the trial. The young Kranjčić proved his principledness with his priestly ministry in Križevci, defying the local communist authorities in the Križevci region, trying to preserve and strengthen the religious convictions of his parishioners and pursuing an uncompromising policy towards the local communist authorities, following the example of Zagreb Archbishop Alojzi Stepinac - in 1946. sentenced to 16 years in prison by a communist court in Zagreb, released after five years. According to the testimony of people who knew him, he was referred to as a 'soldier of Stepinac's army'. Because of this attitude, the local communist authorities declared him "the worst enemy of the people", who refused to come to terms with the social reality of the time. Fr Stjepan Kranjčić's actions in Križevci should be viewed in a broader context, through the prism of relations between the Holy See and the communist authorities, as these too changed over time, becoming relatively normalised, which was also reflected at the local level.
Keywords:
Fr Dr Stjepan Kranjčić, Catholic Church, communist regime, Križevci, religious activities, Croatian historyDetails
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