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Entry: Pope Benedict XVI and Islam: Allah the Irrational Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/pope_benedict_xvi_and_islam_allah_the_irrational#1863 Post contents: As an American of Croatian descent (although my ancestors left while it was still under the happy crown of the benevolent Habsburgs) I am deeply ashamed of the minority terrorist regime which the Nazi and Italian occupiers appointed to rule the newly created Croatian state in 1941. Millions of Croats, weary of Serbian domination, DID flock to its banners--at first. Then-Archbishop Stepinac DID meet with its leaders, and at first regard it as an acceptable regime. His approval turned to horror as he saw that Pavelic and his murderous supporters were intent on USING Catholicism as nothing more than a tool in the creation of a totalitarian nationalism modeled on the German regime. He condemned the slaughters, ordered his priests not to cooperate with the regime, and made efforts (historians can argue if he could have done more--Michael Burleigh, in his recent, persuasive history "Sacred Causes" thinks Stepinac did all he could) to save Jews, Gypsies, and Serbs. Certainly, the Communist charges against him, trumped up by another totalitarian regime, can hardly be taken as authoritative--any more than those thrown at Cardinal Mindzenty. One can no more condemn the Catholic Church for Pavelic's actions than one can damn all the Orthodox for the genocide committed against Ukrainian Catholics by Stalin-- with the aid and support of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy. If one condemns the Vatican for beatifying Stepinac, how should one treat the Orthodox for canonizing Tsar Nicholas II, who presided over numerous pogroms against the Jews, conducted by the "Black Hundred" thugs, who had extensive support among the Orthodox clergy and hierarchy? The point is not to measure genocides one against the other, but to join together in condemning the use of state power to compel or restrain religious conduct, thereby shaking off these historical quarrels so that Christians of every variety can unite in the face of the ongoing secular (and impending Islamic) persecution. Sent at: 2008 11 22