Recently, while reading a novel that takes place in the early 1950s, I came across a comment that one character makes about a Fr. Tiso who led Slovakia during WW2. Nothing else is mentioned of him, but I was wondering if Father was some Slovakian leader title or if they actually meant this man was a priest.
I did a Google search and learned that Fr. Jozef Tiso, a Roman Catholic priest, was president of the First Republic of Slovakia which existed from 1938 to 1945.
I didn't think it could be possible for a priest to be the head of a secular state, but I could easily be wrong. I've never looked it up, this was just a "sense" that I had. Does anyone know what (pre-Vatican II) canon law says about a priest or other cleric holding such a position?
From what I was able to learn from an excerpt of a book entitled Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia, Pope Pius XI "accepted" Fr. Tiso as head of the Slovak state, which I take to mean he gave permission or at least did not forbid it. The aforementioned book of course levels the accusations of "collaboration" and "fascism" (the greatest of crimes). Well, as we know, it seems that most Catholics "collaborated" with the Germans as a form of self-defence against Bolshevism. But Fr. Tiso, from what I've read this evening, seems like he was a pretty good leader (as are many of the other so-called "collaborators" and "fascists" of that time period). Apparently he was so well-loved that while president he was able to stroll the streets of Bratislava without any bodyguards.
He was, of course, executed for "collaboration" by the Bolsheviks after the war.
There is not much information in English available. So I was wondering if anyone else here knows anything about Fr. Tiso?