Croatia’s president defended an archbishop with a questionable wartime record whom Pope John Paul II is set to beatify this weekend. Franjo Tudjman said Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac supported Croatia’s right to have its own state but opposed the “fascist methods” of the Nazi puppet state that ruled Croatia during the war. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked the pope to delay the ceremony, which is the final step before sainthood, pending an independent historical investigation into the Croatian cleric’s wartime record.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
