In a joint statement issued at the end of a three-day meeting, the Catholic bishops called on Bosnian Croat representatives, as well as other politicians and "all who care about a multiethnic and democratic Bosnia-Herzegovina", to prevent the changes from receiving parliamentary support.
"There is reasonable fear that the adoption of the proposed changes would lead to the abolishment of the remaining mechanisms of protection of the interests of the Croatian people as envisaged by the Dayton agreement, such as cantons and vital national interests."
Commenting on statements by international officials describing constitutional changes as being part of a "first phase", the bishops said that there were no guarantees that anything would be done in the second phase, adding that their suspicions were reinforced by the ten-year-long experience of the Dayton agreement which they said did not result in real constitutional changes.
The bishops said that the constitutional changes had been adopted in an "undemocratic and conspiratory fashion" and voiced concern that the agreement on constitutional changes could be a direct threat to the prosperity of Bosnia's peoples and their equality and confirm "the ethnic cleansing and unfair division of Bosnia-Herzegovina that took place during the war and was legalised by the Dayton agreement".
The proposed constitutional changes introduce the entity principle of decision-making in the House of Representatives and place the country's fate into the hands of representatives of the two peoples that can each secure one third of deputies from the territory of each entity, the bishops said alluding to the advantage which they believe the constitutional changes would give to Serbs and Bosnian Muslims.
The bishops also called on local and international politicians to ensure a more significant return of Catholics from the entire country, notably to the northern Posavina region and the area of Banja Luka.