"This is, first of all, about moral injustice and constitutes an act of seizure of private property," Cardinal Puljic said at a news conference held on Friday after a session of the Conference of Bishops in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Puljic referred to the recent ruling by the Sarajevo cantonal court in favour of the claim by the family of Fadil Smajlovic for the flat which is within the Archbishop's residence. The flat, situated in the Catholic Church's building, was allocated to Fadil Smajlovic by the Communist authorities. Smajlovic left the flat during the 1992-1995 war. The entire building was constructed by the Catholic Church for its own needs.
Cardinal Puljic called on the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to adopt a law on restitution as soon as possible so that owners could get back their property.
Commenting on a letter which the director of the National Theatre in Sarajevo, Gradimir Gojer, had sent to Mayor Alija Behman, warning that the possible eviction reflects the persecution of Catholics from Sarajevo, Cardinal Puljic said that he was confident that this letter was the result of the love he and Gojer shared towards the Bosnian capital.
"The number of Catholics is decreasing in Sarajevo and also in the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina," Puljic said, warning against attempts to manipulate those numbers. The real picture can be provided only by a valid census, he added.
The Bishops' Conference chairman, Banja Luka Bishop Franjo Komarica, spoke about other cases of violating the rights of Catholics in the country, and mentioned an attack against a convent in Banja Luka earlier this week.
He said that the position of Catholics and notably of refugees had not improved despite promises which Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik had given during his meeting with Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic.
"The truth is that 95 percent of Catholic driven out of the Serb entity have not returned to their homes," Komarica said, adding that both material support and sincere attitude of the local authorities lacked for a larger-scale return.
Komarica criticised the EU for not allocating a penny to facilitate the possible return of Croats to that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.