Marshal Tito, who last week was reported as having said that he would not release Archbishop Stepinac, now hopes that all differences between the Yugoslav Government and the Catholic Church may soon be solved.
He told a delegation from the Society of SS. Cyril and Methodius of Slovenia that he is " in favour of all differendes between the Catholic Church and the State being mutually solved."
About a week previously, Tito had declared that Archbishop Stepinac, of Zagreb,' now serving a 16-year prison sentence, would not be released.
His latest statement is regarded as an attempt to soften the effect of the earlier declaration on Catholics in the Western world.
Urging that the Church-State differences be ironed out. Marshal Tito repeated the declaration he made in Zagreb in 1945, when he personally conducted negotiations with the Catholic episcopate in that city.
It was following the breakdown of these talks that the Catholic Church issued a pastoral letter condemning the Communist regime.