2005-09-20
Get thee to a nunnery
Is war crimes fugitive Ante Gotovina hiding in a Franciscan monastery in Croatia? ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte says yes, the Vatican says no. Is war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadžić hiding in an Orthodox monastery in Montenegro? A lot of people say yes, Amfilohije says no. Are other monasteries being left out here?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
It is unbelievable how fast the Catholic Church in Croatia and Vatican reacted to the latest statement by Carla del Ponte! (Not to mention the statement of Mr Sanader about Carla del Ponte!)
They were able to respond so quickly because they checked their monasteries, and he wasn't in the one she said.
Monasteris are such a popular hideout it seems! Ostrog has hidden people for centuries!
Where do the monks find the time, between illuminating manuscripts and making cheese?
I think all this is the result of reading too much Umberto Eco and his Name of the Rose!!!
They don't illuminate manuscripts anymore, so that gives them a LOT more free time!And the monastic lifestyle isn't that uncomfortable these days, except maybe in certain highly remote monastaries.
* cbofrwdj is today's secret word, wnder what it means!? looks like a mortal insult in Klingonese*
Ante Pavelic spent three years in Italy after WWII, and for most of that time he was under the protection of Church authorities. It's not clear how high up the protection went, but it was enough to keep him out of the reach of the Americans. (Who were looking hard for him in 1945 and 1946, but then suddenly lost interest in 1947... long story.)
Anyway, point is, Pavelic spent a lot of time in Church property, including monasteries.
So there's definitely precedent.
Doug M.
Ante Pavelic spent three years in Italy after WWII, and for most of that time he was under the protection of Church authorities. It's not clear how high up the protection went, but it was enough to keep him out of the reach of the Americans. (Who were looking hard for him in 1945 and 1946, but then suddenly lost interest in 1947... long story.)
Anyway, point is, Pavelic spent a lot of time in Church property, including monasteries.
So there's definitely precedent.
Doug M.
Such an important point Doug made it twice! Do you want me to delete the duplicate there? My guess is that Blogger was acting up again, I have stories...
There is a lot of interesting source material on Pavelic and other users of the "Ratlines" organised by Fr. Krunoslav Draganovic to facilitate the escape of collaborators at the Pavelic Papers project:
http://pavelicpapers.com/
There is a short bio and menu of documents here;
http://pavelicpapers.com/documents/draganovic/index.html
Yah, that's good stuff. The Draganovic story is so freaking weird. Odd that it isn't better known; or maybe not.
Mind, IMO the organizer of the pages overemphasises the US sympathy to Pavelic & Co. as anti-Communists. This /was/ an element, and a shameful one; but it only became prominent after the spring of 1947. Before that, we were sincerely (if not very effectively) looking for the sonofabitch.
There are bits of the story that I'd love to know more about. Pavelic buying his freedom from British troops with gold? Sounds like an urban legend, but could be true. And the details of Pavelic's near-miss assassination, when Tito sent a hit squad after him in Argentina in 1958. Never been able to find a good source in English, but what a story!
Anyway, quibbles notwithstanding, the Pavelic Papers site is excellent, and highly recommended.
Doug M.
Did you guys know that Pavelic's wife was Jewish? She was at least by half, and maybe was pure Jewish. I have this information from a friend who is very proud of the fact his grandfather was a highly placed Ustasa. We slag each other about that stuff in a very tasteless way as I'm a quarter Jewish.
Post a Comment