The decision to write about Pope Francis and his relations between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats during his term came after I published a deeply emotional letter of now late Pope he wrote in hospital and a comment I received from one of my friends. 

My accompanying, introductory text was:

Religious or not. The question is: What stays after we are gone from this world? Our words and our deeds.

Here is the letter of late Pope Francis:
“The walls of hospitals have heard more honest prayers than churches…
They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports…
It is in hospitals that you see a homophobe being saved by a gay doctor.
A privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar…
In intensive care, you see a Jew taking care of a racist…
A police officer and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care…
A wealthy patient waiting for a liver transplant, ready to receive the organ from a poor donor…
It is in these moments, when the hospital touches the wounds of people, that different worlds intersect according to a divine design. And in this communion of destinies, we realize that alone, we are nothing.
The absolute truth of people, most of the time, only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible loss.
A hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are, in their purest essence.
This life will pass quickly, so do not waste it fighting with people.
Do not criticize your body too much.
Do not complain excessively.
Do not lose sleep over bills.
Make sure to hug your loved ones.
Do not worry too much about keeping the house spotless.
Material goods must be earned by each person—do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance.
You are waiting for too much: Christmas, Friday, next year, when you have money, when love arrives, when everything is perfect…
Listen, perfection does not exist.
A human being cannot attain it because we are simply not made to be fulfilled here.
Here, we are given an opportunity to learn.
So, make the most of this trial of life—and do it now.
Respect yourself, respect others. Walk your own path, and let go of the path others have chosen for you.
Respect: do not comment, do not judge, do not interfere.
Love more, forgive more, embrace more, live more intensely!
And leave the rest in the hands of the Creator.”
—Pope Francis

The words have magic power! They can raise you, balance you, take you down, and even kill you, as one poet said – ” “TOO STRONG A WORD, KILLED ME.”

These emotional words of wisdom of the late Pope Francis definitely inspired, awaked me and I am sure many others to realize the beauty of life and to help find life purpose, or at least to start seeking for it!

After early morning reading of the letter, my soul got cleansed by the tears, and these words became a herald of a new, fulfilling day.

And, as the devil in us never sleeps, a comment appeared on my post.

“Wise and nice words, but not from this hypocrite man.”

I was at first paralysed, and for a few minutes did not know how to reply.

Then I decided and wrote

“I do not judge any person whose shoes I did not wear. Usually, at the dawn of life, people take accounts of it and express their genuine inner feelings. This what he wrote is full of wisdom, and I learn from it.”

To get reply:

“This is deep, and you know it.”

This person coming from one of the Orthodox peoples, not Serb and not Russian, alluded to the history of Vatican.

To that, I replied:

“Please let the words of wisdom and respect of this man who just passed away stay here as an inspiration and eye opener to all humans regardless of religion, race, colour, affiliation.”

Here, our morning conversation stopped.

In the meantime, Pope Francis funeral passed, and just yesterday, I found one article in Serbian newspaper Politika written by a director of Serbian NGO “Veritas” Mr. Savo Strbac 76 year old,  Croatian Serb, lawyer, and author.

I translated it from VERITAS.ORG,  and here it is with some of my notes included:

“The news “the Pope has returned to his Father” was broadcast on Easter Monday 2025. It is about Pope Francis, whom the Croats called Franjo, and the Serbs took (the same pronunciation)over from their Croatian brothers. The day before, on Easter, which this year coincided with both Catholics and Orthodox Christians, the Pope appeared in a wheelchair on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome wished thousands of gathered believers a “happy Easter”, the most important holiday in the Christian calendar.

After the Easter Mass in the Vatican and the “Urbi et orbi” blessing, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic briefly met with the Holy Father, wishing him a happy Easter and good health.

Although Croatia is one of the most Catholic countries in the world, Pope Francis has not been, in general, as popular in the country as his predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. The reason for this is to be found in Pope Francis’ attitude towards the canonization of the beloved Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960), who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
As a reminder, Alojzije Stepinac was the Archbishop of Zagreb during World War II.  After he refused to separate the Catholic Church in Croatia from the Vatican after the end of the war, in 1946 he was sentenced by a communist court to 16 years in prison and forced labor, and a five-year loss of political and civil rights, “for collaborating with the Italian and German occupiers, and the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia, for the forcible conversion of Orthodox Christians to Catholicism, for aiding the Ustasha regime, and for hostile propaganda after the end of the war.”

He spent about five years serving his sentence in Lepoglava prison, when under international pressure he was interned in his native Krašić, where he died. In 1952, Pope Pius XII appointed him a cardinal, and in 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified him (declared him blessed). In 2016, the County Court in Zagreb overturned his 1946 conviction, arguing that the Yugoslav communist regime had not provided him with a fair trial.

However, one Croat has a very good reason to (love) the now deceased Pope Francis. That is the current Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who was “lucky” to be the last politician to speak with Pope Francis before his death. I do not know who Francis’ successor will be and I do not know when Stepinac will be canonized, but I am almost convinced that history will remember Andrej Plenkovic more for his last meeting with Pope Francis than for his third consecutive term as head of the Croatian government.”

According to the rules of the Catholic Church, all beatified persons must one day be canonized. Croats expected Stepinac to be canonized no later than the twentieth anniversary of his beatification.

And why Pope Francis did not canonize Stepinac, according to the prevailing opinion of Croats, is the fault of the Serbs, namely the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), while at its head was the late Patriarch Irinej (2010-2020), who sent two letters to Pope Francis (the first dated April 30, 2014, the second dated July 10, 2015), in which he asks him to remove the issue of Cardinal Stepinac’s canonization from the agenda and leave it to the “infallible Court of God”.

In one of these letters, the Patriarch writes to the Pope that Cardinal Stepinac “did not protest but remained silent even when it was known that the Nazi Ustasha regime had sent to their deaths three Orthodox bishops, several hundred Orthodox priests and monks, and several hundred thousand Orthodox believers, his fellow citizens, in the most horrific manner. (…) He did not protest but remained silent even when faced with the fact that in ‘his’ state, the children of ‘undesirable’ citizens of that state – Serbs, Jews, Gypsies – were also being killed in cold blood, systematically and systematically.”

(Our note: Mr. Gideon Greif Jewish historian who specializes in the history of the Holocaust, especially the history of the Auschwitz concentration camp and particularly the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, have found that Croat Ustashe used 57 different ways to kill Serbs, Jews and Roma in the worst Croatian Ustashe runned concentration camp of Jasenovac  in many ways even from Auschwitz where 700000 seven hundred thousand people were slauthered- if this was not GENOCIDE then the world has existential issue)

“The Patriarch also objects to Cardinal Stepinac for declaring the coup, by which Juroslavija broke away from the Tripartite Pact on March 27, 1941, a betrayal for which he accused the Orthodox Church, and Orthodoxy for being “the greatest curse of Europe,” and he duly noted these words in his diary. Only with such his attitude towards the Serbian Orthodox Church, the patriarch writes to the pope, can it be explained his attitude towards the forced conversion of Serbs in the so-called NDH to the Roman Catholic faith and church, in which way around 240,000, 250,000 people were converted to Catholicism.

And Pope Francis heeded the Serbian patriarch’s request by establishing in 2017 a Mixed Commission, composed of representatives of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference (CBC) and the Serbian Orthodox Church, with the task of determining the character and work of Alojzije Stepinac before, during and after World War II, all under the motto that “the church should reconcile, not quarrel”. After six sessions, the commission concluded its work with the conclusion that “the positions of the two sides on this topic remain opposed,” leaving open the possibility that the commission, perhaps in a different format, could continue its work, which did not happen until the end of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

During his pontificate, Pope Francis, unlike his aforementioned predecessors, did not even visit Croatia. In fact, throughout his pontificate (2012-2025), more was said about his visit to Orthodox Serbia than to Catholic Croatia.

Patriarch Irinej, in an interview with the German daily “Frankfurter Alemanne Zeitung” on September 27, 2013, spoke out in favor of the rapprochement of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, as well as the arrival of the head of the Roman Catholic Church to Serbia, while at the same time assessing that the time for the Pope’s arrival was not yet “ripe”, explaining that more than 200,000 Serbs had to leave “their homes and churches” in Croatia and now live in poor conditions in Serbia, and that among them there are “very many who would not be happy to see the Pope come”. (Based on my research, the threats to the Pope came from church circles, from the ranks of the hierarchs).

In an interview with the Russian Sputnik for Orthodox Christmas 2016, Patriarch Irinej stated that he was not opposed to the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, visiting Serbia, adding that the crimes against Serbs in Croatia were one of the reasons why the Pope’s visit to Serbia was being “postponed.”

In an interview with the TV station “Hram” on January 4, 2018, Patriarch Irinej reiterated that it was not yet time for the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, to visit Serbia, stating: “Precisely because of these historical relations, which are still fresh and close, we believe that this is not yet an opportunity. It is not the time. We would not want anything to happen that would further strain our relations in connection with this visit.” In an interview with “Blic” on July 2, 2018, Patriarch Irinej said that he still maintains his previous position that it is not time for Pope Francis to come to Serbia.

As reasons for the Pope’s failure to come to Serbia, the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church has always been heard that the Pope should first pay homage to the victims of Jasenovac, and only then come to Belgrade, with the assessment of the interlocutor of that newspaper that the atmosphere is changing because the Vatican has not recognized Kosovo and because it has not declared Alojzije Stepinac a saint.

Croats were also disturbed by the expressions of condolences that Pope Francis sent in his letter of November 21, 2020, on the occasion of the death of Patriarch Irinej, to Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabro-Bosnia, the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the entire Serbian Orthodox Church, in which he states: “I am convinced that the fraternal relations between the Catholic Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church have developed and strengthened under the leadership of Patriarch Irinej, and that they will continue to progress and bear fruit in the years ahead… With gratitude to God, I recall the late Patriarch’s many years of faithful service to the Lord and the Church and his shining example of Christian witness to the joy of the Gospel.”

To this should be added the statements of the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, one of the most serious candidates for Francis’ successor, regarding Stepinac’s canonization, made during his visit to Croatia: “God’s timing is perfect, so let’s wait for God’s timing” (October 2017); “The canonization of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac must be a moment of unity for the entire church, both Catholic and Orthodox, and since there is still resistance on the Orthodox side, Stepinac will not be declared a saint until further notice” (September 2020).

How much Croats disliked Pope Francis is also shown by the cover of the weekly “Hrvatski tjednik”, which read “orthodox” Croatian nationalists: “Farewell to the Pope: He is not worth a single Croatian tear because he loved the criminal Serbian Orthodox Church more than the Croatian Catholics and Stepinac!” This issue of the Croatian weekly was published two days before the Pope’s funeral, which was attended by about 400,000 believers and about 170 delegations from all over the world. Serbia was represented by Prime Minister Đuro Macut, and Croatia by President Milanović and Prime Minister Plenkovic.

I should add that late Pope Francis met with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kiril in Cuba.

The meeting took place on 12 February 2016 (5) in a VIP room at José Martí International Airport near Havana, Cuba. Francis arrived at 2 pm local time, and the two leaders embraced and kissed. A 2-hour private meeting was followed by the signing of their joint declaration, which had been prepared in advance. After that meeting, the Russian Patriarch went to the Arctic, visited the Russian station at King George island, and performed a divine service in one of Russia’s northernmost Orthodox churches – the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Miracle! Rumours are circulating that some relics were involved.

Another curiosity is that Vatican, for the first time, left Croatia without Cardinal and appointed instead a Cardinal in Belgrade Serbia. Another move towards the reconciliation of the relations between Serbian Orthodox Church and Vatican. But, as Serbian President Vučić said – Serbs are ready to forgive, but Croats are not ready to forgive the Serbs because as long they exist they will be witness of those unimaginable crimes, genocide done by Croat Ustashe!

One is certain!

Pope Francis left behind him divine deeds that will be remembered more than his human omissions!

R.I.P Pope Francis.

April 29, 2025

Darko Richard Lancelot

Philosophyofgoodnews.com