ZAGREB, Jan 4 (Hina) - President Stipe Mesic on Thursday received the representatives of religious communities in Croatia, headed by Catholic primate Josip Bozanic, on the occasion of the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Mesic said
2001 was the year of a first decade, a first century and a first millennium, in which "many challenges await us." "The Church or religion have always been on the side of those in difficulty. It was so in war, it is so now after the war," said Mesic. He added the contribution of religious communities to the preservation of the national corpus was very important and that we could not know what would have happened with our civilisation without religious communities. Speaking about globalisation, the president said it had both good and bad effects. We should promote the former and find out how to eliminate the latter because, besides wealth and poverty, crime becomes glo
ZAGREB, Jan 4 (Hina) - President Stipe Mesic on Thursday received
the representatives of religious communities in Croatia, headed by
Catholic primate Josip Bozanic, on the occasion of the Christmas
and New Year's holidays.
Mesic said 2001 was the year of a first decade, a first century and a
first millennium, in which "many challenges await us."
"The Church or religion have always been on the side of those in
difficulty. It was so in war, it is so now after the war," said
Mesic. He added the contribution of religious communities to the
preservation of the national corpus was very important and that we
could not know what would have happened with our civilisation
without religious communities.
Speaking about globalisation, the president said it had both good
and bad effects. We should promote the former and find out how to
eliminate the latter because, besides wealth and poverty, crime
becomes global too, he said, adding religious communities could
make a significant contribution to helping overcome poverty,
unemployment and poor production.
The president said many feared a united Europe, but stressed it
would entirely exclude war from the continent as a political means,
and enable "every nation to live within their complete cultural
corpus. Members of religious communities will be in their corpus
too."
States will stay states, peoples will stay peoples, religious
communities will stay religious communities, he said, adding
everyone should be satisfied in united Europe.
Mesic was hopeful ecumenism would be more successful than until
now, saying: "In mutual tolerance and cooperation we can settle all
issues ahead of us."
Thanking Mesic on behalf of all religious dignitaries, the
president of the Croatian Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Josip
Bozanic, said the past decade had been marked by an unwanted war,
difficult living conditions, victims, and criminals who he pointed
out should be prosecuted responsibly, taking into consideration
the consequences so as not to hurt or devalue the victim and justify
or diminish the crime.
Speaking about the role of the Church in society, especially the
togetherness among Christian communities, Archbishop Bozanic said
the Croatian society at present needed dialogue.
Our public is hyper-politicised, he said, adding Croatia needed
people and media to direct it towards the real life and needs of man,
the individual, the family, and the entire people in view of
offering prospects to anyone, the young in particular.
Bozanic conceded the Croatian society was in the grips of a
spiritual and ethical crisis, but added the Church was aware of the
needs, expectations and wishes of the citizens.
He wished the president, his associates and those in authority
success in resolving the difficulties so that the citizens'
justified expectations could be realised.
(hina) ha