Indeed, for the most part, the clergy welcomed the new regime with fanatical enthusiasm. The Catholic Church had long considered Croatia its outer bulwark in the Balkans against the Eastern Orthodox Church, and grated against participation in a Yugoslavia dominated by their confessional opponents. Most also shared, to some degree, the ideological goals of the Ustasha, and welcomed the end of the religious tolerance that had been imposed by Yugoslavia. Many of the lower clergy went well beyond words and participated directly in forcible conversions, torture, and mass murder. Italian historian Carlo Falconi remarks: