TUDJMAN GIVES DINNER FOR ROMAN CATHOLIC DIGNITARIES

ZAGREB, Sept 29 (Hina) - On Monday evening Croatian President Franjo Tudjman gave a dinner in honour of Cardinal Franjo Kuharic who is the outgoing Archbishop of the Roman-Catholic Arch-Diocese of Zagreb, the newly-appointed Zagreb Archbishop Josip Bozanic, the Bishop of Varazdin, Marko Culej, the Bishop of Pozega, Antun Skvorcevic, the military ordinary, Juraj Jezerinac, and the Apostolic Nuncio to Croatia, Giulio Einaudi. Present on Monday's dinner were Croatian senior officials. Tudjman thanked Cardinal Kuharic for everything this Zagreb Archbishop had done for the Catholic Church in Croatia during the hard Communist times, during the times of the establishment of the independent and democratic Croatia and in the war and the post-war period. He congratulated Kuharic's successor, Msgr. Josip Bozanic, on the appointment, and pledged to ensure absolute freedom of work, confidence and support of Croatian authorities. Then Croatian President congratulated Bishop Jezerinac on the appointment to the post of the military ordinary and Bishops Culej and Skvorcevic on their appointments to the posts of bishops in newly-established dioceses of Varazdin and Pozega. Addressing guests at the dinner Tudjman said "the independent, sovereign and democratic Croatian state is here, on solid foundations for its future. We created it (the state) together, … and we shall together build it on principles of the Christian civilisation." "However, we must be aware that we are not only continuously under biased scrutiny of the world policy but that we are also exposed to various kinds of groundless pressure and that surprising lack of understanding for our state of affairs and our aspirations, our path toward freedom and democracy," he added. "They exert pressure on us but cannot either crush us or make us leave our just way. They put us on trial and charge us with no reason or for marginal things. They observe but cannot see; if they see, they do not recognise what is the most sacred to our man and the entire Croatian people," Tudjman said. "And all of this is because we do not want to be subordinated to some new frames, similar to those from which we have liberated ourselves with difficulty. And all of this is because we want to be independent and God's, to live with others in peace and harmony on the bases of mutual respect and recognition," he told the dignitaries. He said that it depended on everybody, primarily on responsible people from the secular and spiritual life what kind of situation would prevail in Croatia and how the world and Croatian citizens would imagine this country. He reiterated, in capacity of the country's president, that authorities would persist in high moral principles while building the young Croatian state. Tudjman asked the Church dignitaries for support and cooperation in those endeavours and requested from Apostolic Nuncio Msgr. Einaudi to be an interpreter of such Croatian aspirations to the world. On behalf of bishops of Varazdin and Pozega, the military ordinary and his behalf, Cardinal Kuharic thanked President Tudjman. He said that the Catholic Church in Croatia advocated the right of the Croatian people to live in its own country and in freedom and added that every people, and the smallest one, deserved such right in order to maintain its history, culture and identity. Thanking for congratulations and good wishes, the newly- appointed Archbishop of Zagreb, Msgr. Bozanic, called on well- meaning individuals to put in accord opinions patiently and to fulfil agreed-upon obligations which he said would be the best response to pressure exerted from abroad. He added that foundations for good relations between the Church and the State had been set up by signing and ratifying three treaties with the Holy See. Msgr. Bozanic expressed readiness to act for the benefit of the Republic of Croatia and all of its citizens. (hina) jn mš 300004 MET sep 97