The Magnum Crimen is a book about clericalism in Croatia from the end of 19th century until the end of the Second World War. The book, whose full title is Magnum crimen – pola vijeka klerikalizma u Hrvatskoj (The Great Crime – a half-century of clericalism in Croatia), was written by a professor and historian at Belgrade University, Viktor Novak (1889–1977). The book was first published in Zagreb in 1948.
Immediately after the book was published, the Roman Curia placed this book on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum and pronounced anathema against the author.
Background
Novak wrote a trilogy, of which the last part was Magnum Crimen (the first two parts were the Magnum Tempus and the Magnum Sacerdos). According to O. Neumann, Novak was a Croat by birth, and he has been, since 1924, active among the Serbs. "He was Chair of Croatian History, which was founded at the University of Belgrade in order to promote mutual understanding between the two kindred peoples". One of the determining factors in his life was his visit to Rome before 1914 and his research in the Vatican Archives. As a medievalist, he came into close contact with problems of modern religious life, and took lively interest in relations between the Vatican and Catholic Croats.
Observing the Roman Catholic Church activities in Yugoslavia for more than fifty years, Novak concluded that this Church replaced the idea of service to God with service to the Roman curia, i.e., to the government of the Roman Pontiff in the role of its world leader. As a result of this idea, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Roman Catholic Church identified Catholicism with Croatian nationhood, which Novak argues turned most of its priesthood into ardent Ustashe supporters.
Content
First edition [1948]
Viktor Novak was imprisoned in Banjica Concentration Camp in autumn of 1941. In the camp he met refugees from the Independent State of Croatia and heard of the crimes committed by Ustashe and their clerical supporters. After leaving the camp he started to write Magnum Crimen.
The book describes the activities of the Roman Catholic clergy in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, including their intention and attempts to become above the state, to control the state and eventually the everyday lives of the common people. It has two distinct parts. The first part consists of 15 chapters, covering Catholic clericalism from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in Austria-Hungary, then in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The second part, the last four chapters, covers the rise and fall of the 1941–45 Independent State of Croatia (NDH), and the active support of provided to it by the Catholic clergy.
According to Novak, the main doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was based on the following: the clergy shall be paid by the state as state officials; the state cannot have any control over the Church; the Church has right to be fully involved in the political life of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; the Church doctrine/religious education shall be a part of primary and secondary school curricula; the Roman Catholic Church curricula in the schools shall be obligatory to all pupils whose at least one parent is a Roman Catholic. the state should not allow conversion of Christians to non-Christianity nor allow any Catholic to be un-confessional (Constitutional section of the Roman Catholic Church doctrine in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as of November 1921)
Josip Juraj Strossmayer's ideas, of which the most important one was that serving God is equal to serving the people, created close relations between ethnic Croats and Serbs by introducing the Old Church Slavonic language as the liturgical language of the Catholic church in the Balkans and were aggressively suppressed by the Catholic clergy in Croatia and Slovenia.
Ante Pavelić's nationalism identified Catholicism with the Croat people, which was actively supported and interpreted by the clergy.
The second part of this book focuses on the establishment of the 1941–45 Independent State of Croatia (NDH), the active support extended to the state by the Catholic clergy, and the clergy's involvement and support in the extermination and/or forceful conversion of the Orthodox Serbs as well as the extermination of the Jews and the Roma people.
Novak bases his gloomy picture of the NDH and the wartime not only on written documents which, despite strict police measures found their way to the occupied capital, but also on personal narratives by some of his fellow prisoners in the Banjica konclogor.