ZAGREB, 22 Jan (Hina) - The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Franjo Kuharic on Wednesday held talks with a delegation of Caritas the representatives of which participated in a conference of the Coordination of Caritas' donors from
western European countries, which was held in Zagreb on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cardinal Kuharic thanked Caritas representatives for the help they offered Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the hardest war years as well as today. The Caritas delegation included the president and the director of the Croatian Bishops' Conference's Caritas, Msgr. Vladimir Stankovic and Josip Grosic respectively, Karel Zelenka, representative of Caritas Internationalis from Rome and representatives of the Bosnian Bishops' Conference's Caritas.
ZAGREB, 22 Jan (Hina) - The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Franjo
Kuharic on Wednesday held talks with a delegation of Caritas the
representatives of which participated in a conference of the
Coordination of Caritas' donors from western European countries,
which was held in Zagreb on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cardinal Kuharic thanked Caritas representatives for the help
they offered Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the hardest war
years as well as today.
The Caritas delegation included the president and the director
of the Croatian Bishops' Conference's Caritas, Msgr. Vladimir
Stankovic and Josip Grosic respectively, Karel Zelenka,
representative of Caritas Internationalis from Rome and
representatives of the Bosnian Bishops' Conference's Caritas. #L#
'It was not only material help we needed but we needed the
defence of our right to freedom and peace. You were our support in
a moral sense', Cardinal Kuharic said, adding that Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina still needed help.
Kuharic also spoke about the most important current problem -
the return of displaced to their homes.
Speaking about the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kuharic
said that the Banja Luka diocese had 80,000 Catholic believers
before the war out of whom only some 6,000 remained. The Sarajevo
archdiocese had 145 parishes before the war. Ninety-nine parishes
did not exist any more and 350,000 parishioners had been expelled
from their homes, Kuharic said.
Speaking about the current situation in Croatia, Kuharic said
that there were 140,000 displaced people who waited for the return
to their homes. Part of them would return once the process of
reintegration of eastern Slavonia was completed, he said.
The head of the Croatian Bishops' Conference's Caritas, Josip
Gosic, said that a working group for eastern Slavonia had been
formed at the Zagreb conference.
The group would devise a concept aimed at assisting the
government in helping the displaced from eastern Slavonia through
Caritas, Gosic said.
(hina) rm
222344 MET jan 97