- It is not a "mistake" that Pavelic for ten years in emigration under fascist patronage, prepared his Ustashe to, "once the orders arrive", take the power and follow mottoes which were preponderant in "Editorials" in the magazine Ustase signed by Poglavnik: ...Ustashe won't refrain from killing, because when the order to spill blood is issued, rivers of blood will flow... therefore, every Ustasa is waiting for an order to attack the enemy, to butcher and destroy... the most important factors will be dedication, guns, bombs and sharp knives of Croat Ustashe, who will clear and cut all that is rotten from the healthy Croat body... and then, let the world observe murdered and burned corpses of traitors... A KNIFE, A GUN, A BOMB and EXPLOSIVES, these are our idols... But Ustashe will turn even a drop of blood into spurts and rivers of blood, because the blood of enemies will flow in rivers and bombs will scatter their bones like dust. That is correct, for the liberation of the homeland and the Croat people, for the establishment of the Croatian national freedom and independent Croatian state all means are justified, even the most horrendous ones, because the great and sacred goal makes every, even the most horrendous means sacred... Those who drink blood of the Croat people should be slaughtered, so that their evil never reappears among the Croats (see monthly magazine Ustasha, issues for February, July, October and November of 1932); somewhat later in the Nacela Ustaskog Pokreta [Principles of the Ustashe Movement] (1934), he gave the basis for the future racial laws and the fascist organization of the state inspired by the fascist totalitarian system.
- It is not a "mistake" that Pavelic ceded Croatian coast to Italy and Medjimurje to Hungary, that he sent Croat soldiers to die at Stalingrad, that he declared war to United Kingdom and USA, that he put the economy of his state in the service of the fascist war machine.
According to father Lasic, none of that is a "mistake", which, strictly speaking, is almost true. Pavelic didn't "miss" to do anything, he faithfully executed all that he had planned in his program. A much better description for his actions is the word CRIME. And not any crime, but crimes (plural) of the worst kind: war crimes, genocidal crimes, and crimes against humanity. That is how they would be characterized by any competent court, since Nuremberg in 1946 until the Hague in 1997. Father Lasic called that criminal a "great" person, "personification of the Croatian national idea" which was established under "the sacred name of the leader of the Ustashe movement". He misused the church and broke its rules which state that the homily (sermon) at the commemorative mass must consist of excerpts from the Bible and their interpretation; instead father Lasic delivered a political speech celebrating a criminal.
Although such statements have been extremely rare so far, and the quoted letter is so far the only official church document of that kind, one could still say that the Catholic church in Croatia did its part. Here and there, pretty infrequently, condemnations and distancing from Ustashe ideology can be heard from certain opposition politicians, mostly those from SDP, but also some from HSLS, while other political parties have remained silent on this topic. Gentle distancing from the rehabilitation of Ustashe ideology can be heard from time to time from some (very few) leading officials of the ruling party, and even from the president himself, but most often followed by the comment that "such activities are harmful for Croatian image abroad," therefore with a certain dose of hypocrisy. At the same time those members of the ruling party who explicitly, or at least indirectly, in their appearances toy with the rehabilitation of NDH and the Ustashe movement are much more numerous. Among political parties represented in the parliament, these tendencies have explicitly and unconditionally been condemned by IDS [Istrian Democratic Parliament] only, and by two small parties without representation in the parliament, ASH [Socilaist Action for Croatia], SDU [Social Democratic Union], and several civic associations. I think that it is even more significant that Croatian honor has been protected in the recent years by some, rather lonely, but also well respected Croatian intellectuals and public workers, such as Ivan Supek, Zvonimir Berkovic, Luka Vincetic, Ivo Banac, Zvonimir Ivankovic Vonta, or Sime Balen.
At the same time, neo-Ustashe noise is becoming louder, almost totally drowning few critical voices. In seven years, starting with the rather shy relativization of Ustashe crimes, we've arrived bit by bit, to the first eulogy of a criminal and celebration of crime, from a church altar in the center of Zagreb and the Republic of Croatia. Father Lasic's sermon, officially supported by several parties from the extreme right, received far more publicity than both condemnations of the event by his superiors (which were published on page 15 in Glas Koncila on January 12, 1997). In spite of everything, a great majority of the Croatian public has been silent during the last seven years. What is the meaning of this new "Croatian silence" in which, each one in its own way, all leading opposition parties and all state, cultural and artistic Croatian institutions have participated?
All that was justified by the assessment that neo-Ustashe ideology had only a small number of supporters who will "blow off their steam" after a while, whose numbers will fall, who are not more numerous than extreme right supporters in developed Western European countries, and therefore harmless. Finally, there was a dominant theory, which I also supported for a while, that all that is a difficult and disgusting topic which shouldn't be part of the daily politics and contemporary life, but should be left to historians and objective interpretation by the historical sciences.
Unfortunately, the Ustashe are not any more only a historical topic. Deafening neo-Ustashe noise made that topic a part of contemporary Croatian political scene and turned it into a challenge to Croatian identity and its soul. Father Lasic's sermon from the altar of the Wounded Jesus church is the crown of that challenge. What does it mean today, after seven years of increasingly noisy neo-Ustashe clamour? What is the meaning of the silence of the overwhelming majority of the Croatian public in the face of eulogies to infamous crime and the greatest criminal in Croatian history? What is the meaning of almost unnoticeable reaction from the Croatian Catholic church? Have we become so jaded that we do not react to praise of crimes, have we become indifferent toward crime?
Indifference with respect to a crime, or even the promotion of crime, in the extreme is the same as the acceptance of a crime: lack of ethical sensibility and ethical intelligence. If it becomes a part of Croatian identity that will be fatal for the future of Croatia. In that, it doesn't really matter that it will "be harmful for the image of Croatia abroad". If we are incapable of condemning past crimes of our compatriots, we are incapable of condemning them today and in the future. We are incapable of condemning the crime in Ahmici, post-"Storm" Knin Krajina and Lika, and we lack credibility which would allow us to condemn the crimes in Ovcara and Srebrenica.