ZAGREB ARCHBISHOP PRESENTS PASTORAL LETTER

ZAGREB, Dec 13 (Hina) - Reporters were on Wednesday presented a pastoral letter by Zagreb's Archbishop Josip Bozanic, called "That They May Have Life". The issue of life is the main message of the letter, professor at the Catholic Faculty of Theology and head of the Centre for the promotion of the social teachings of the Church, Stjepan Baloban said at the news conference. The Church and state institutions, he stressed, must especially take care of the disabled, advocate true culture of living in the context of the Croatian society in which there is an atmosphere of hopelessness and negative stances towards everything surrounding us. The Church, Baloban said, does not agree with the intentions of the government authorities to diminish the incomes and protection of mothers and children. The pastoral letter particularly accentuates the issue of elderly persons and the need for the society to stimulate greater care for the increasing population. Reporters asked Monsignor Bozanic about his stances towards the draft law on religious communities. The Commission for Relations with Religious Communities, in drafting the law, had not consulted religious communities, but submitted to them a completed draft. The text, he said, had its advantages, but also disadvantages, such as greater values for the community than the individual. The media are a reflection of the society in which they function, but they also influence this society, Bozanic said, asked about the media war currently ongoing in Croatia which he described as not useful either for the media or the spiritual climate. Speaking about the relation of the Church towards globalisation, Bozanic said the process had positive values, but stressed the differences and riches of peoples and cultures must be respected. Asked about the return of the property of the Church which had been nationalised before Croatia's sovereignty, he said the process was slow due to various difficulties. (hina) lml