During his sermon at Mass he said on Saturday in Zagreb on the occasion of Statehood Day, Cardinal Bozanic, among other things, commented on the scandal involving the Brezovica home for orphans or unprovided-for children, which is run by the Catholic charity called Caritas. An investigation has been recently launched against a former 52-year-old maintenance man on suspicion that he sexually abused a mentally retarded boy in the home from 1995 to 1999. Some media have also reported that there have been also other cases of abuse in the home since 2002 and that the director of the Caritas of Zagreb Archdiocese, Jelena Brajsa, covered them up and failed to report to the police, although she learnt about them. Brajsa is persistent in refuting allegations, and the Archdiocese on Friday denied speculations that Cardinal Bozanic dismissed her.
So far two state prosecutors have been suspended on suspicion that they were also involved in covering up acts of abuse of children in Brezovica.
Cardinal Bozanic said on Saturday that "in advance and with the anguish in our hearts, we condemn the crime which is being talked about, if it was committed."
"The Brezovica home, just as other similar institutions, should work in compliance with law and under the supervision of competent state institutions. According to the principle of subsidiarity those who are directly responsible should always be ready for the immediate engagement of responsible civilian services in case some evil happens so as to prevent and uproot it in the right way," the dignitary said during the mass which was attended by the top Croatian official, including President Stjepan Mesic, Sabor Speaker Vladimir Seks and Prime Minister Ivo Sander.
The cardinal urged competent state institutions to establish the truth and make a decision on the entire case as soon as possible.
Bozanic went on to say that those were difficult moments for Zagreb Caritas but that "all good things which that Caritas being led by Jelena Brajsa through difficult decades has done and is doing for all people of various ages and particularly for new-born babies, and children who are left, stripped of their rights and disabled, must not be forgotten."
He added that the Zagreb branch of Caritas was now facing the process of reconsidering its internal organisation.
Bozanic added that transparency is the most effective protection for all working in such institutions.
He believes that all of this which he called an unhappy case should prompt everybody, the Church, society and state authorities to promote in a better way the upbringing and protection of children.
At the end of his sermon, Bozanic called on the media not to carry reports which can inflict anguish on and embarrass the current generation of children accommodated in the Brezovica institution which he said is still their only home.