WEEKLY: EU REQUESTS VATICAN TO STOP BISHOPS' ATTACKS ON CRO. GOVT.

ZAGREB, Oct 9 (Hina) - European Union (EU) representatives requested of the Vatican in Zagreb last week to prevent Croatian bishops from attacking Croatian authorities and openly supporting radical nationalists, Nacional weekly says in Tuesday's issue, quoting reliable diplomatic sources. "EU ambassadors, at a separate meeting with the Holy See secretary for relations with states, Msgr. Jean Louis Tauran, in Zagreb last week, officially requested the Vatican to prevent Croatian bishops from attacking the legitimately elected Croatian authorities and to stop them from openly supporting the most radical nationalist forces which want to forcibly topple the democratically elected authorities," Nacional writes. The European troika ambassadors requested a meeting with Tauran during his visit to Croatia last week, reads the article headlined "EU Urges Vatican to Stop the Kaptol Right-wing". The EU maintains the Vatican should send a clear message to the senior dignitaries of the Croatian Catholic Church to stop supporting radical ultranationalists, the weekly says. "The meeting was very open and free of diplomatic phraseology. We avoided the form of the protest note, but we outlined our positions clearly," Nacional quotes one of the participants in the meeting as saying. According to the unidentified source, the talks with the Holy See secretary, which took more than one hour, were spearheaded by a Spanish diplomat as a representative of a Catholic country and the state that takes over the six-month presidency over the EU early next year. "We openly told the Vatican's representative that in its Europeisation, Croatia has to do much more to become a wealthy and prosperous country. On that path the (Ivica) Racan Cabinet must make a series of difficult decisions and unpopular measures, but that is the only way to stand back on one's feet. For all these reasons, we told Msgr. Tauran that the Catholic Church in Croatia has no right to interfere with the economic policy as it is neither an economic nor a political organisation," the same source was quoted as saying. The EU troika emphasised that all EU countries were behind the aforementioned stances, as was the United States, Nacional writes. It adds that at the meeting, Tauran said he was familiar with the situation, promising he would convey the messages to the Croatian Catholic primate, Archbishop Josip Bozanic, and all Croatian bishops. (hina) ha sb