CARDINAL KUHARIC APPEALS FOR FORGIVENESS AND CO-EXISTENCE

( Vidi vijest: 5204 ) ILOK, Oct 23 (Hina) - Croatian Roman Catholic Cardinal Franjo Kuharic on Thursday said a solemn Mass in Ilok on the day of St. Ivan Kapistran, the patron-saint of this eastern Croatian town under the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAES). At the beginning of the service in the overcrowded church of St. Ivan Kapistran, Cardinal Kuharic said that the people who had come to attend this Mass were gathered by a particular feeling and the hope that the sadness could be followed by joy and peace in reconciliation and co-existance established on the truth, justice, freedom and security. Kuharic added that the Mass would be said for "all of the bereaved, the exiled, the wounded and the dead and for all the people of the Croatian Danube river area, regardless of their differences." He wished that this day should be the beginning of the new hope of co-existence in the Danube area and of the new hope that every resident of the area could feel peace and security and be ready to cooperate with his neighbours. Preaching a sermon on the peace and co-existence, Kuharic said that true ways of the co-existence in the Danube area should be sought in openness. "The horrendous war was waged here and that's why the word 'co- existence' has specific weight. Having experienced violence and such injustice, man should leave behind that dark past and be imbued with the light of new co-existence and new relationships," the retired Zagreb Archbishop said adding this must take place in hearts and souls of the people. "What is necessary is the inner liberation from all bad moods and the sincere conversion through the strength of the Holy Spirit. Who forgives and renounces hatred and revenge, breaks the cycle of evil," Kuharic said at the sermon. The mass was concelebrated by the Djakovo-Sirmium retired bishop, Ciril Kos, the guardian of Ilok Franciscan Monastery, Marko Malovic, the only Catholic priest who remained in the Danube river area during the Serb occupation, parish priests of the Sirmium and Backa areas and priests from the Italian town Kapestran, the birth place of St. Ivan Kapistran, and from Austria. Returnees to Ilok and several hundred displaced Ilok residents who are to come back to their hometown attended the Mass as well. Present at the solemn service were Croatian senior officials, including parliamentary deputy speakers, Jadranka Kosor and Vladimir Seks, the president of the national committee for the trust establishment, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Minister Jure Radic, the Deputy UN Transitional Administrator for the Danube area, Souren Eraydarian and other UNTAES officials, Serb Democratic Independent Party (SDSS) representatives, local authorities and priests of the Serb Orthodox Church and of the Evangelic Church in Ilok. Cardinal Kuharic will visit the Catholic Church in Sarengrad and the destroyed Franciscan monastery of St. Philip and Jacob in Vukovar and hold a meeting with the Deputy UN Transitional Administrator on Thursday afternoon. (hina) jn mš 231629 MET oct 97