In the letter carried by the Catholic press agency KTA, Conference Secretary General Ivo Tomasevic conveyed expressions of "deep shock" from Bosnian bishops at the statement Tihic had made late last month during his visit to Zagreb.
During his visit to the Croatian capital in late September, Tihic told reporters that the Catholic Church should bear some of the responsibility for the resettlement of people, which was encouraged by political parties, because it should have said that it was not in the interests of the Croats.
The Bosnian bishops saw this statement directed against the whole Church, "from the parish priests to the Pope".
"Is the Catholic Church or the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, as its leader, responsible because tens of thousands of Bosnian Catholics, most of them Croats, were expelled or fled from their homes?" the letter said, recalling that the Pope had spoken many times against the war, ethnic cleansing and any kind of justice.
The Bosnian bishops called on Tihic to show at least one document of the Catholic Church to corroborate his allegations.