BELL FOUNDED IN HONOUR OF POPE'S ARRIVAL TO CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 8079 ) ZAGREB, Sept 4 (Hina) - A bell founded in honour of the Pope's upcoming arrival in Croatia was presented on Friday at a foundry in the Zagreb district Trnje. The bell will be sounded at a mass in Marija Bistrica, northern Croatia, celebrating the Pope's arrival and on the occasion of the beatification of Alojzije Stepinac, a late Croatian cardinal. After the Pope's departure, the bell will be put inside a new bell- tower of a St. Lawrence church in Petrinja, central Croatia, demolished in the last war. The 325kg-heavy and 830mm-wide bronze bell took ten days to be founded. It is currently being embellished, polished and coated. Its outer surface bears a papal coat-of-arms, a text for the occasion of the Marija Bistrica ceremony, and Cardinal Stepinac's coat-of-arms and inscription. Another bell in honour of the Pope is to be founded in a few days. It will be sounded at a mass in the southern Croatian port of Split. (hina) ha 041408 MET sep 98