VATICAN, Dec 16 (Hina) - John Paul II should visit Croatia in late spring or early summer next year, with stops in Dubrovnik, Rijeka, and Zadar, and perhaps Osijek, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday after an audience
with the Holy Father.
VATICAN, Dec 16 (Hina) - John Paul II should visit Croatia in late
spring or early summer next year, with stops in Dubrovnik, Rijeka,
and Zadar, and perhaps Osijek, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic
said on Monday after an audience with the Holy Father. #L#
Tomorrow Mesic will present the Pope with a Christmas tree Croatia
has given to the Vatican.
"It is a great privilege for Croatia that we have been given the
honour to present the Holy Father with the Christmas tree," Mesic
told reporters at the Croatian Embassy to the Holy See. He added the
fact that he was able to meet the Pope was also a special privilege.
John Paul II was interested in the impact which the messages he gave
during his two previous pastoral visits have among the Croatian
faithful today, said Mesic.
"I said... that even today those messages are present not only in
the religious but in the social and political life as well," said
the President.
As for his talks with the Holy See's state secretary, Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, Mesic said Sodano was interested in Croatia's bids
to draw closer to the European Union and why Slovenia had preceded
Croatia so much in that respect.
"I explained that Croatia had been through a war which left behind a
devastated economy and a large number of refugees and displaced
persons," Mesic said, adding those problems were slowly being
solved.
The talks with Sodano also addressed the implementation of Vatican-
Croatia agreements and the agreements Croatia signs with other
religious communities.
"The Vatican welcomes those agreements because they reflect the
policy of ecumenism and tolerance among people," said Mesic.
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