A benefactor of the Bosnian Croat population, Šarić became a controversial figure because of his pro-Ustasha activities and rhetoric, including his support for forcible conversions to Catholicism inside the Independent State of Croatia during World War II.

Šarić was the archbishop of Vrhbosna (with see in Sarajevo) during World War II, when Bosnia and Herzegovina became part of the Independent State of Croatia.

And with eager hope in its beautiful, its sweet and its golden freedom, lifting ourselves upwards to God, we prayed to the Almighty to guide and protect Ante Pavelić for the liberation of Croatia.

"[4]In late April 1941, he penned a eulogy to Pavelić, Kada Sunca Sija (When the Sun Shines), and had it published by his diocesan periodical Vrhbosna, which included the lines: "For God himself was at thy side, thou good and strong one ..

So that thou mightest perform thy deeds for the Homeland... And against the Jews, who had all the money … Who wanted to sell our souls … the miserable traitors … Dr Ante Pavelić!

[5] Šarić's own diocesan newspaper published these words by one Pitar Pajić: "Until now God spoke through papal encyclicals, sermons, the Christian press … And they were deaf.

Despite this, Šarić consecrated Čule in Mostar on 4 October 1942, with archbishop Aloysius Stepinac and Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone acting as co-consecrators.

In his book, The Balkans in Our Time,[8] Professor Robert Lee Wolff referred to Ustaše gangs killing tens of thousands of Serbs, and wrote:"To some they offered the choice between conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism or instant death.

… It must be recorded as a historic fact that certain members of the Croatian hierarchy, notably Archbishop Sharich [sic] of Sarajevo, endorsed this butchery."

According to French writer Jean Hussard, who witnessed the four years of Ustaše governance, Šarić not only knew about but also encouraged the persecution of Serbs.

It was part of a campaign to explain to the masses why the Jews around them were being "disappeared": "The descendants of those who hated Jesus, who condemned him to death, who crucified him and immediately persecuted his disciples, are guilty of greater excesses than those of their forefathers.

[10][11] Šarić moved to Madrid, Spain with the assistance of the Catholic Church, where he made a new translation of the New Testament into Croatian, and published a book extolling the virtues of Pope Pius XII.