Dean Turkalj Featured on Media Servis Ahead of Stepinac Symposium

Eighty years after the conviction of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac, and ten years after the annulment of the verdict, legal experts, historians, and publicists will revisit the circumstances and legality of the 1946 judicial process. This topic and Stepinac's legacy will be examined at an international scholarly conference on November 11, 2026, co-organized by the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Croatia and the Archdiocese of Zagreb, reports Media Servis.
 

Ahead of the symposium, an interview featured the Dean of the CUC Faculty of Law, Assoc. Prof. Kristian Turkalj, PhD; journalist and publicist Višnja Starešina; and the representative of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, the Very Rev. Tomislav Hačko. They discussed the historical and legal context of the Stepinac trial, its aftermath, and contemporary societal perspectives on the issue.

Turkalj emphasized that a primary aim of the conference is to provide an expert analysis of the deficiencies in the legal proceedings and highlight violations of the defendant's fundamental rights. According to him, Stepinac was denied adequate preparation for his defense, his proposed defense witnesses were rejected, and he was deprived of the right to appeal.

"The Blessed Cardinal was denied the ability to prepare his defense, his witnesses were turned away, he was granted no right of appeal, and fundamental principles of substantive and procedural criminal law were violated," Turkalj noted, adding that these procedural and substantive flaws will form a key focus of the scholarly debate.

Alojzije Stepinac was convicted in 1946 for alleged collaboration with the Ustaše regime, an interpretation consistently contested by the Church. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1998 in Marija Bistrica.

The full interview is available at: