Cardinal Nemet on New Pope, Kosovo, Stepinac: The Vatican’s Policies Are Slow to Change

Cardinal Ladislav Nemet (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Policies are slow to change, said Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, the archbishop of Belgrade, with regards to the election Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican’s refusal to recognize Kosovo or canonize the late Zagreb archbishop and cardinal Aloysius Stepinac (1898-1960).

“For one, policies don’t change that quickly. If you know the Vatican and the Catholic Church, which always say we have time, for we believe in eternity – stances do not change, especially political ones,” Nemet told the RTS public service on May 14.

According to him, the matter of Stepinac is not just ecclesiastical but semi-political, since it involves deeper issues in Croatian-Serbian relations.

Stepinac served as the Croatian army’s apostolic vicar-general in the fascist Independent State of Croatia during the Second World War, for which he was convicted of treason by the Yugoslav Communist regime and served five years in prison. He subsequently received the rank of cardinal in 1953 and was declared a martyr and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998, with the latter reigniting Serb-Croat tensions. The push to have him canonized has been contentious ever since.

“We live in the shadow of this issue, yet it is not paramount to us. I still recommend that the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Croatia resolve [the question of Stepinac’s canonization] themselves, and the pope, whoever he may be at the time, will accept that solution,” Nemet stated.

With regards to Kosovo’s independence, the Belgrade cardinal maintained that nothing will change until well-known conditions are met.

“Things won’t change in a day. The new law on religious freedom and the rights of religious communities needs to be abided by. That is somehow still missing,” Nemet explained.

Asked whether Serbia should expect a visit from the new pope, Nemet replied that Leo XIV told him that they would discuss everything further once the situation surrounding his new appointment has “somewhat settled.”