CATHOLIC PRIMATE RELEASES CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

ZAGREB, Dec 19 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Bishops' Conference, Archbishop of Zagreb Josip Bozanic, on Wednesday forwarded a Christmas message "dedicated to the joy of the child". In the message, the Croatian Catholic primate wishes a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. "In our homeland children are born with decreasing frequency, there are increasingly fewer children in families, school classes are increasingly smaller, the number of schools closing down is increasing," the archbishop says. He maintains the Croatian society is poorly "organised to accept children, houses and flats are not planned for numerous families, the tax system does not favour such families, labour legislation does not protect women who want to give birth." "If we genuinely wish our nation and state to have a future we have to tackle the demography issue seriously and responsibly," says the Catholic head, warning that "abortion is an act of death." To support and encourage families with many children, the Zagreb bishops decided to personally baptise every fifth child in the families of the Zagreb diocese. Christmas is the holiday of the child, the holidy of God's Son who became a man, and the holiday of all of the world's children, Bozanic says in his message. (hina) ha sb