crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
According to the pattern of the Kočevje-trial in October 1943, which was the first of the
communists’ politically arranged trials, a number of trials against Church representatives followed.
There were collective trials against so-called enemies of the new regime, into which was included
also Catholic clergy (the Christmas trials, Rupnik/Rožman trials, Bitenc trials). They also staged a
number of mass trials against religious orders and diocesan priests: Franciscans, Jesuits, Lazarists,
Sisters of Mercy, Magdalene Sisters, Littoral clergymen and other diocesan priests. Often the trials
against Church representatives were deliberately staged on or close to Church holidays (the Christmas,
Lenič, Kragelj trials). The trials were not in line with the legal norms of democratic states. During the
countless interrogations, often held at night, the accused were forced (also by being put in dark cells
and solitary confinement) to sign false statements. They were not given an opportunity to consult their
legal counsel; some met their lawyers at the trial for the first time. Their defenders were helpless, their
suggestions were immaterial. Indictments and sentences were pre-arranged, based on false evidence
or testimony, while witnesses and documents speaking for the defendant were ignored by the court.
Sentences frequently included the confiscation of all chattels and real estate. As a result of sentences of
individuals, property of several religious orders (Sisters of Mercy, Lazarists in Celje, School Sisters in
Slovenjska Bistrica, Magdalene Sisters, Ordo Teutonico, Jesuits) was confiscated as well.
The judiciary was in the hands of the governing Communist Party and only tried to realize party
goals. The judges had to be devoted to the people and socialism. Security agencies (such as OZNA and
UDBA) violated basic humans rights if the needs of the Communist Party so dictated. With constructed
and false materials, UDBA (until March 1946 it was called OZNA, the State Security Administration)
leaned on priests, monks and nuns, theologians and their relatives and friends. Many were forced to
cooperate. It impeded the flow of new priests. Religious education was intentionally made difficult, then
impossible, banned from schools in 1952; that same year, the Theological Faculty was excluded from the
University of Ljubljana. Attempts to economically ruin the Church were made. A very effective method
of repression was also taxation. When the regime allowed church-collections, they were taxable. This
happened only in Slovenia, where tax authorities worked hand in hand with secret police.
For their activities, priests required governmental approval. In Slovenia, each priest who had to
leave his post during the war – even if he had been exiled, imprisoned or interned in a concentration
camp – needed a permit to continue his work. To divide the Church, separate the priests from bishops,
play diocesan leaderships against each other, and minimize the influence of Vatican, the political
authority, with the help of the secret police established the Cyril and Methodius Society for Catholic
Priests (CMD) on 20 September 1949. The regime gave CMD members some material benefits: modest
pensions, social insurance, lower taxes, travel relief, and so on.
Even though the constitution ensured freedom of conscience and religion, there was no religious
freedom. The government abused the “division between church and state” to exclude priests, monks and
faithful from public life. It banned all public manifestations of faith in Slovenia and limited religious
print media, while at the same time supporting strong anti-religious and anti-church propaganda and
strongly pressuring the religious laity. In schools, Marxist atheist ideology was the foundation of all
education and upbringing.
Church dignitaries lived under enormous pressure from regime authorities and secret police.
Bishop Rožman left his Ljubljana Diocese in May, 1945. In absentia Bishop Rožman was convicted
and sentenced to eighteen years of prison and hard labour, and his citizenship was revoked. His deputy
was the Vicar-General – from 1946 onwards – Auxiliary Bishop Anton Vovk, who became his successor
(1959). Bishop Anton Vovk was subjected to long and tiring interrogations – especially during the
night – by the secret police for many years. On 20 January 1952, at the train station in Novo Mesto, an
organized mob poured gasoline on him and set him on fire. Because of the negative echo worldwide,
one of the attackers received a suspended sentence of ten days. Against Dr Maksimilijan Držečnik
(who was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop in 1946, named Apostolic Administrator in 1949, and in 1960
became the residential Bishop), the regime tried to set up a trial, but could not decide on the basis
for it. A trial against the priest in Ribnica on Pohorje, Alojzij Vrhnjak, who was in 1949 sentenced
to eight years of prison with hard labour, was an attempt to morally discredit him. After part of the
Gorica Diocese was added to Yugoslavia on 15 September 1947, Dr Franc Močnik was first named the
Apostolic Administrator in Solkan. He was chased across the border by a mob hired by the Communist Party
of Slovenia on 12 October 1947. His successor was Dr Mihael Toroš, Apostolic Administrator in Pula and
Poreč. Toroš at first cooperated with the authorities, and even signed a statement of cooperation, believing that
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