ZAGREB ARCHBISHOP ISSUES EASTER MESSAGE

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic, issued an Easter message on Wednesday, saying that the intention of the Church was to renew faith and promote forgiveness, reconciliation, solidarity and unity as "the leaven of a new European society that will not be trapped by conflict and discord, but imbued with the values of the Gospels".#L# Bozanic said that the point of Christianity and Catholicism was to make people more responsible for the world they lived in. The archbishop announced that a "Pilgrimage of Peoples" would take place at the Marian shrine of Mariazell, Austria, on May 22 and 23 under the slogan "Christ - the Hope of Europe", and that it would bring together believers from eight Central European countries, including Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Europe today is not divided only by geographical boundaries. There are many borders in Europe today and they all are the result of lack of love, spirituality, respect for man and feeling for the needs of others. Only through concrete acts of love will we overcome the borders among people, the borders by which we oppose God, Bozanic said in his message, concluding that the source of hope lay in the Gospels of Christ. (Hina) vm sb