5,000 CROATIAN PILGRIMS AT LORETTO SHRINE

LORETTO, May 20 (Hina) - Over 5,000 Croatian Catholics arrived today in Ancona, Italy, to hail the 700th anniversary of the shrine of Our Lady of Loretto. The pilgrims were headed by the Archbishop of Sarajevo, Cardinal Vinko Puljic. The celebration and the holy mass were also attended by Croatian Parliament House of Commons Speaker, Katica Ivanisevic, the government's commissioner for relations with religious communities, Jure Radic, ambassadors to Vatican, Ive Livljanic, to Italy, Davorin Rudolf, the Mayor of Rijeka, Slavko Linic and other figures. The Croatian pilgrims were greeted by Pope's envoy for Loretto shrine, Archbishop Pasquale Machi, who recalled of the long during relation of the shrine with that of Trsat, in Rijeka. The Loretto and Trsat shrines are related to the story about the mysterious disappearance of Jesus' house from Nazareth during the Crusades. The house had suddenly appeared at Trsat and later at Loretto. The Archbishop of Rijeka, Antun Tamarut, appealed in his sermon to European and world public and statesmen "to finally open their eyes and ears, to see and hear the truth about this mindless war; to see who was the first and real aggressor and who was the victim, who was to be stopped and who was to be defended." "Appalled at the horrifying news coming these days from northwestern Bosnia and Banja Luka, we demand protection for all innocent people, particularly for our Christian-Catholic brothers and their Bishop, Franjo Komarica," said Archbishop Tamarut in his sermon. (Hina) jn bk 201456 MET may 95