KUPRES, July 19 (Hina) - "Catholic Day in Bosnia-Herzegovina" was celebrated in the south-western town of Kupres on Saturday with a three-hour mass said by the head of the Catholic Church in Bosnia, Archbishop of Vrhbosna Vinko
Puljic.
KUPRES, July 19 (Hina) - "Catholic Day in Bosnia-Herzegovina" was
celebrated in the south-western town of Kupres on Saturday with a
three-hour mass said by the head of the Catholic Church in Bosnia,
Archbishop of Vrhbosna Vinko Puljic. #L#
Organisers estimate more than 10,000 faithful from the country were
present, as well as groups of pilgrims from Croatia, Montenegro,
Italy, Germany, and Poland.
After Pope John Paul's recent visit to Banja Luka, the Bosnian Serb
capital, the Kupres mass is viewed as the second most important
Catholic rally in Bosnia this year. Today's mass was part of Central
European Catholic Day celebrations.
Cardinal Puljic repeated several times during his sermon that
Catholic Croats were capable of forgiving one another. He said to
Serbs and Muslims, Bosnia's two other peoples: "Forgive us for the
evil we did because of human weakness, or perhaps malice."
Puljic criticised past attempts to divide Bosnia, saying that some
wished Catholic Croats had no place in Bosnia. "Bosnia-Herzegovina
is our homeland in which we are rooted. We are not strangers here,
but at home".
The president of Bosnia's Conference of Bishops, Franjo Komarica,
read out a proclamation the bishops adopted in which they urge
giving Catholics "convincing reasons to return and survive" in
Bosnia.
"We ask representatives of domestic authorities and the
international community to give us a more evident guarantee that
our religious and national singularity will be preserved. A
people's equality is an empty word unless (the people) is entitled
to its language, to the preservation of its own identity and to
equal representation in all bodies of authority," reads the
proclamation.
It also underlines that Croats in Bosnia have been part of the
spiritual and cultural make-up of Central Europe for 14 centuries.
The envoy of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, Assistant Zagreb
Bishop Vlado Kosic, pointed to the spiritual unity between Croatia
and Bosnia, saying the Church was the bridge connecting them. He
also said Bosnian Croats throughout their history had suffered the
most of all Croats.
The apostolic nuncio to Bosnia, Santos Abrily Castello, said the
Church in Europe needed to renew Christianity on the continent.
The faithful were also welcomed by envoys of bishops conferences
from Slovenia, Hungary, and Austria.
The mass ended with the Croatian national anthem.
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