FIRST GOSPIC-SENJ BISHOP INAUGURATED

GOSPIC, July 25 (Hina) - At a ceremony held in Gospic on Tuesday, Gospic-Senj diocese was established and its first bishop, Msgr Mile Bogovic, was inaugurated. The inauguration ceremony was attended by almost all Croatian bishops, Banja Luka bishop Franjo Komarica, apostolic nuncio Giulio Einaudi, several hundred priests, including an Orthodox priest from Dreznik, Milos Orelj. The ceremony was also attended by high state officials, headed by the president of the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities, Goran Granic. Today's ceremony takes place on the Day of St. Jacob, the day when back in 1689 priest Marko Mesic from Brinje set out toward Lika. He then wrote: "I intend to visit Lika on Tuesday... this Church lives where I go..." "The Church in Croatia, headed by its bishops, has decided that it should 'visit Lika' today with its strongest institution, the diocese," Gospic-Senj bishop Mile Bogovic said. "Much here is still not regulated and ordered: we have here a small and impoverished population, poor economic conditions, destroyed family and church buildings, disrupted relations between Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholics), the unresolved problem of Bosnian Croat refugees." We rightfully expect, Bogovic continued, that the state authority will understand that it, too, should "visit Lika" with even stronger institutions than the current ones are and not allow this area to become a periphery in some new administrative changes. The gathered were also addressed by apostolic nuncio Giulio Einaudi who conveyed the papal blessing to the Croatian clergy and all believers and representatives of the authorities. The president of the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities, Goran Granic, greeted bishop Bogovic and members of the diocese on behalf of the government and other state bodies. He also expressed gratitude to the Pope for the establishment of the new diocese and the inauguration of its first bishop. (hina) mm rml