"Fortunately, the Gospel helps us see the basic difference between true and false authority," which can be disguised as democracy, he said, calling on believers not to let others block their path towards the Saviour.
Cardinal Bozanic congratulated believers on the holiday of the resurrection, saying that through it Jesus became the true authority which heals, forgives and comforts.
He said the present was a time in which promises were easily made and even more easily broken, and that a programmed destruction of society's tissue was at work in Croatia.
"If a man and a wife divorce, the authority of the family is destroyed. If one underestimates teachers, the authority of schools is destroyed. If weak, incompetent and irresponsible persons are appointed as statesmen, the authority of society's well-being and peace is destroyed. If business people are weakened, the authority of economic independence is destroyed. If one equates the aggressor and the victim, the defender and the attacker, the authority of freedom and those who won it is destroyed," the archbishop said.
The services which benefit the community and the common good are being weakened very slowly, but systematically, day by day, he added.
He warned that man was "alone, unprotected, disenfranchised and abandoned," while on the other hand there was "something hidden, masked, undefined, with a big appetite for pulling the strings and ruling from the background. There is a spreading of the culture of rejection and exclusion, which Pope Francis has pointed to at so many places."
Bozanic called on believers not to suppress, despite the difficulties, the Christian values "that can help man and make our country noble."
He recalled that in its history, the Croatian people had models, hope and reliable authorities that could be the right guides today as well, singling out "the blessed Alojzije Stepinac (1898-1961)." He said that "one dictatorship wanted to remove him, with a series of perfidious actions, thinking that after his departure from the country, or from Earth, the flock of believers would disperse too."
No state leaders attended the service at Zagreb Cathedral.
Easter services were celebrated around Croatia, including in Osijek, Djakovo, Zadar, Split and Rijeka.