CROATIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PRESENTS SIMCIC AND ETEROVIC WITH MEDALS ( Editorial: --> 0654 )

( Editorial: --> 0654 ) ROME, Nov 13 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic presented medals of the Prince Branimir Order bestowed by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman onto Msgr Milan Simcic and Msgr Nikola Eterovic in Rome on Thursday. The two priests contributed to the Holy See learning about the true situation in Croatia and Croatians during the Homeland War. Thanking for the medals, Simcic stressed the big role of the Croatian Apostolic Bureau of St. Jeronim, which has been teaching Catholicism to Croats for centuries. Eterovic stressed that the Holy See, based on the moral principles on the rights of people on self-proclamation, had in 1991 expressed its stance about the crisis developing in the Balkans. (hina) lm jn 132119 MET nov 97