Involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustaša regime

Catholic clergy involvement with the Ustaše covers the role of the Croatian Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi puppet state created on the territory of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia in 1941. The NDH was controlled by the Ustaše movement, which was not recognized by the Holy See, although the Holy See, more specifically Pope Pius XII, was criticized for not condemning the movement more timely and forcefully.

For centuries, Croatia had been a part of the Habsburg Empire. A variety of ethnic groups have long existed in the region, and there has been a strong correlation between ethnic identity and religious affiliation, with Croats being mainly Catholic, and more Western-oriented, while the Serbs are Eastern Orthodox.

Following the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire at the close of World War I, the desire of Croatian nationalists for independence was not realised, and the region found itself first in the Serb dominated Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then in the equally Serb dominated dictatorship of Yugoslavia established by King Alexander in 1929. Internal borders were redrawn dividing historical Croatia into several provinces. Political repression bred extremism, and the "Ustaša" ("Insurgence") was formed in 1929 by Ante Pavelić, with the support of Fascist Italy. In 1934, King Alexander was assassinated by a Bulgarian gunman, a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, a radical group seeking independence, allied with the Croatian Ustaše group led by Pavelić. The new Regent Prince, Paul Karadjordjević was convinced by the success of Vladko Maček's more moderate Croatian Peasant's Party at 1938 elections to grant further autonomy to Croatia.

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