Zagreb, (IKA) – The bishops of the Croatian Conference of Bishops have issued a statement in connection with the return of land in Dajla to Italian Benedictines. We present the statement in its entirety:
“We, bishops of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, truly wish to renew professions of love, respect, loyalty and obedience to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, and thank him for the attention that he has personally devoted for a long time to the question concerning the events regarding relations between the Benedictines and the parish of Dajla. These events threatened to blemish the precious spiritual fruits of the Pope’s unforgettable pastoral visit to Croatia in June of this year. We particularly wish to express our gratitude to the Holy Father for receiving representatives of our Conference of Bishops on October 8, 2011, who wanted to explain these circumstances directly to him. As the Croatian episcopate, it is our duty to reaffirm our gratitude to the Holy See for the beneficence that is constantly manifested in relation to the Republic of Croatia, especially on the occasion of the recognition of its independence, as well as recent attentiveness to Croatia’s progress toward integration in the European Union.
“Regarding the dispute of many years concerning the case of Dajla, we, the Croatian bishops, recognize the merits of the Benedictine fathers through the presence of their order and their pastoral and social activities for over eighty years in the monastery in Dajla—as a community dependent on the abbey of Praglia—serving the people of God even under circumstances of great difficulties and abuse, before they were sentenced to forced labor and before all their goods were confiscated. In this context, we, the Croatian bishops, do not want to forget even a single person (priest, religious or lay person) who during the dark period of fascism, Nazism and communism suffered torture, humiliation, imprisonment and even the deprivation of life.
“In order to calm tensions, which for us, as faithful sons of the Church and loyal citizens of the Croatian state, weigh upon our hearts, we recognize that the provisions adopted by the Holy See in order to arrive at a resolution to the canon dispute have attempted to restore matters—to the extent possible—within the framework of truth and justice. Moreover, it is well known that the transfer of property does not mean or intend to leave the impression that this means depriving the Croatian state of the sovereignty that it exercises over it. Therefore, conclusions presented by the mass media that the Holy See or even the Holy Father is using the case of Dajla to somehow Italianize Croatia are completely unfounded.
The Holy See has reiterated its fervent desire for the unexpectedly arisen difficulties to be gradually resolved by a mutual approach to effective community and fraternal ecclesial cooperation. We, the Croatian bishops, in a faithful and sincere way support this strong desire of the Holy See.
“In this spirit, the entire Croatian episcopate accepts the new pastor sent by the Holy Father as a coadjutor to Msgr. Milovan in the Diocese of Poreč and Pula, and express to him our closeness and respect in the exercise of his sensitive new office. Finally, we appeal to all our faithful to accompany the Church in our homeland with prayer,” concluded the statement issued by the Press Office of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, dated October 19.