Kranj: Cardinal in Trouble. Deja Vu? Franc Frantar.

Finding the Story Behind the Statue
Franc Frantar?
Franj; or Ljubljana?

Dan and I came across this watering trough with a drowning Cardinal (see the hat? or is that a bishop's hat? or perhaps just a priest?), watched over as he goes under by a sad lady who is not an angel, no wings, and no halo, and not really looking like a Mary, and a monster beneath the water.  At first, seeing just the photo from the card, I thought it was Croatia.  No luck locating it.  Now I am looking at Dan's log, there at his feet, and the chronology of his nightly entries puts this in Kranj, Slovenia; or possibly Llubjlana. The location in the notes looks like Kranj. Or Ljubljana, not far.  The Cathedral in Ljubljana dates from the mid-15th Century, but this is a new grouping.

What issue is being addressed? Who is the Cardinal, or Bishhop? Or priest? Spoiler:  We now think this is Franc Frantar. And he was just a priest, but how did he manage to escape temporarily to Malawi with prosecution pending for child abuse, except for collaboration with a Bishop?  See FN 1

Franc Frantar? Cardinal hat on drowning cleric, Kranj, Diocese of Ljubljana, Slovenia, we believe.  

Our research:  Who knows more?  Why is this Cardinal-Bishop-Priest drowning?  What other scenario fits.

I.  First I did a search for Cardinal-drowning-monster.

That brought up a site for survivors of sexual abuse by priests, see http://nationalsurvivoradvocatescoalition.wordpress.com/vinnie-nauheimer/. So is this statuary scene part of the

drumbeat of scandal, or merely happenstance, and a local story we haven't found yet? 

In the National Survivor Advocates site are Biblical references to the manner of death shown here, but the wording does not definitely tie in with child sexual abuse.  The wording is "offend" children -- with warnings that anyone who does so should have millstones cast around their necks and drowned.  

Without taking a position on the religious interpretation, that the manner of offending referenced here is abuse.  FYI -- here is the reference, with our emphases and comment that at the least, the meaning of the original Greek was to ensnare not just "offend":

• Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. [Offend is not the transliterated word;  ensnare is, see Strong's word numbering G4624, with Greek letters phonetically like skandallsE (scandal?), see  http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mat18.pdf/]

• Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. [Offend? Merely offend? Again, the word in transliteration is not "offend" but "ensnare", see G4624,  http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mar9.pdf/]

• Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.  Again, ensnare, see above, and http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/luk17.pdf

Research continuing, and it appears that the Catholic Latin Vulgate and Douay Rheims come close to the Greek snare and scandalize, but that the King James and other Protestant versions use the washy "offense" and ambiguity more.  See http://greeknewtestament.com/B40C018.htm/; http://greeknewtestament.com/B41C009.htm#V42/; http://greeknewtestament.com/B42C017.htm#V2. Protestants:  your wording softpedals the snare.  See: says not to cause the little ones to stumble, or make trouble for them, cause a little one to sin.  Is the act of ensnaring, scandalizing, merely that?

II.  Second, I went back to Dan's entry in the green log at his feet in the picture. Dan has Down syndrome, but that does not hold him back. He writes down details that I do not, and then regret omitting.

• Dan's entry:  "stature of man drown with octopois stature the lady folding her hands and looking at man I am beside her with tree ...." This is located as the sentence after another statue we saw, of Slovenia's paramount poet, the 19th Century Dr. France Preseren 1800-1849.  And the next entry showed Kranj to Zagreb, Croatia. The preceding entry is for Ljubljana and Lake Bled.

III.   Moving on with Dan's information - search for cleric, sexual abuse, Slovenia this time, not Croatia.

I found Wikipedia, a good starting point, but vet it yourself.  

• Information:  Archdiocese of Ljubljana, Franc Frantar, who was detained (it says) in 2006 for "sexual abuse of up to 16 minors."  He was sentenced to prison 5 years, after having escaped to Malawi to be a missionary there, then returned to Slovenia once an Interpol warrant issued.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_country#Slovenia. Problem:  Wiki ran into a dead end in finding more about that name.  
• Do a search for it, however, and a Franc Frantar appears in Slovenian articles.   

Franc Frantar:  A/k/a Franci Frantar, spellings always can vary with translation.

Search those articles, click on translate, and  the first link found does indicate in translation that he was convicted of child abuse and served some time and has been paroled, see Franc Frantar. 

Will want to check the others.  Where is he now?  On parole with  no restrictions?  Sixteen convictions, or just one?

Kranj. Slovene origins, Slovakian myths: Carantania. The Flood

How the earth was created, by whom, what elements of life are to be valued and pursued, are part of any culture's traditions.  In Slovenia, the contemporary Austrian "look" of the country, from its long association with the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, and its medieval castles and the peasants' revolts that surged also elsewhere, distract from older traditions.  Go beyond Jason and the Golden Fleece, to origins.

A good source site is http://www.thezaurus.com/?/webzine/when_the_world_was_created/.  There are elements of Genesis, pre-Genesis, references to the beings in existence that Genesis also notes, and the Flood. Jakob Kelemina has collected stories, and many are summarized at Thezaurus, also known as Webzine Sloveniana.

Another good source site is Slovenian Mythology,  http://www.carantha.net/slovenian_mythology__slovensko_bajeslovje_.htm , with multi-media contents.  The ancient ways of Carantania.  Go deeper.  Animals with golden horns, holy animals with horns (unicorn?) battles of light and darkness, all with echoes in other cultures including our own.  The Slavs are a linguistic group, not ethnic, see site at http://www.carantha.net/the_mythology_of_ancient_carantania.htm, but the idea of Slovenes as Alpine Slavs, the Vends as Elbe Slaves, etc. is entrenched.  This is a new area and I am no expert, but point out the issues for the professional culture-watchers.

The mythology, in small part:

The earliest inhabitants of earth were the giant Ajdi. See Studies in Slavic Myth, at http://sms.zrc-sazu.si/En/SMS8/Hrobat_8.html.  The lived singly, one family each, each on a mountaintop. They were big, but had no tools. They did have fire.

A download produces a PDF document in Slovenian, but the concept of original giants seems clear.  Their ancient Slovene (same as Carantanian?) God was one of many gods. 

God (who apparently had not himself created the Ajdi) slept and slept, and upon waking, his glance created the earth (that was nothing but barren rock), sun, moon and the stars. Setting out to examine the creation more closely, he tired eventually and, on returning, a grain of sand from the sea bottom fell from his nail and became earth.  A drop of sweat fell from his brow into the earth, and it became the first man. Lesson:  from his creation, man must earn by the sweat of his brow. God lived with the men and fed them manna, but the men did not enjoy themselves because they feared God and trembled.  So God left his body behind, which became fertile ground, and went to Heaven to reside. Men did not need manna, and grew their own food now, and were happy.

However, man soon became corrupt despite good bread and grain, so the gods decided to do away with them:  here comes the rain, the deluge, the rising waters.  There were four survivors, but we only know of the fate of one survivor, the one who had grasped a vine on top of a hill, and climbed, beanstalk style, later described as a buckwheat stalk.

Kurent, a particular god beloved by the Slovenes, saw the effort and was pleased and took pity on the surviving man. In exchange for a promise that the man would forever honor the vine and the buckwheat plants. The saved man settles on the Adriatic. He made a switch from the vine, and stuck it in the ground and there is still fine wine in that region.  He also, sowed the buckwheat in Kranjci (Kranj area, Kranj now is a prosperous city, commerce). Kurent the benefactor, remembered.

Kranj - for a local overnight instead of crowded Lake Bled

This is an old industrial town, now revitalizing itself by renovating the old area. See www.randburg.com/si/kranj. It is a "regular" business center and residential town, close to the touristy Lake Bled - so it is good for the overnight. It has a lovely old pedestrianized square, and - as we have found each time no matter where we were, a good hotel. The earliest settlements there date from the 1st Century BC, says the site.

Although Slovenia is part of the EU, there had not been the full shift to the euro. Be prepared to have to use local currency, with the exchange rates, etc. Check it out first. You will lose out with each exchange.