ORTHODOX BELIEVERS IN SARAJEVO CELEBRATE X-MAS, CARDINAL PULJIC AT

PULJIC AT $ TENDS SERVICE SARAJEVO, Jan 7 (Hina) - A Serb Orthodox priest, Dusan Jovanovic, said a morning mass on Tuesday in the old Orthodox church at Bascarsija, Sarajevo downtown, to celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar. Jovanovic, a pre-war priest in the Bosnian capital, returned to Sarajevo a few months after the Dayton Peace Accords were signed. The Tuesday mass was broadcast by Sarajevo television. Roman Catholic Arch-Bishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, attended the solemn mass at which Orthodox believers in Sarajevo celebrated Christmas. Wishing the gathered faithful a merry Christmas, Cardinal Puljic called on everybody to respect each other's differences. "I wish that each of us may be closer to God and thus to each other," Cardinal added. A Christmas service that should have been held in another Orthodox church (the Church of Holy Transfiguration) in Sarajevo, was cancelled as a tear gas bomb had been thrown into the church shortly before the beginning of the mass. Local police have investigated the incident, but perpetrators are still unknown. (hina) mš 071918 MET jan 97