A fervent Croatian nationalist, Catholic, and anti-Communist, Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1960) became a world-wide symbol of Roman Catholic resistance to Communism when he was imprisoned by the Communist regime of Yugoslavia in 1946.

Alojzije Aloysius Stepinac was born to a large prosperous peasant family in the village of Krasic, Croatia, about 40 miles from Zagreb, then a part of Austria-Hungary, on May 8, 1898. After completing high school, he was drafted into the Hungarian army in World War I. Wounded and captured by the Italians, he subsequently joined and fought with the Allied-sponsored Yugoslav Volunteer Corps at Salonika. By 1919 he had earned several decorations for valor and had attained the rank of second lieutenant.

After the war, Stepinac attended the University of Zagreb in the new state of Yugoslavia, and in 1924 he enrolled in the Gregorian University in Rome to prepare for the Roman Catholic priesthood. A brilliant student, he earned doctorates in...