"The soul of this nation knows how to celebrate and defend life, how to accept death, how to safeguard and value the family and cultivate family ties, and how to help the needy and the poor. This nation knows solidarity, respects Sunday, rejoices on feast days and celebrations, prays to God and venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary."

We express our human solidarity with all our fellow citizens being forced to live lives unworthy of human beings.

Statement by the Justice and Peace Commission on respect for marriage, defense of the family and the necessity for the state to maintain dialogue with churches and communities of conviction regarding ethical issues concerning the common good

This referendum can prevent capricious changes to the institution of marriage by the eventual arbitrariness of the parliamentary majority, irrespective of the will of the people, as shown by the case in France. Therefore, the success of this referendum will ensure that the institution of a union of a man and woman, which in itself provides the legal basis for the establishment of a family, will more enduringly respect that union which is the best environment for every child—a responsible loving union of a mother and father.

They welcome the decision by the Croatian Parliament to call for a referendum and urge all the members of their communities—Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others—to vote in the referendum on Sunday, December 1, and use their votes to ensure the constitutional protection of marriage, because marriage as the union of a man and woman is the best place for receiving and raising children and establishing families, which are the basic units of every society.

Zagreb, October 16–18, 2013

A declaration of brotherhood between the Capuchin Parish of St. Leopold Bogdan Mandić in Zagreb-Dubrava and the Archdiocese of Belgrade was signed.