Zagreb, (IKA) – “Welcome to Croatia! Croatia is honored and rejoices that you have arrived. It is my exceptional honor to be able to be your host on your state visit, and as the President of the Republic I share the joy of the millions of Croatian Catholics who welcome you today as the Holy Father on an apostolic visit,” said the President of the Republic, Dr. Ivo Josipović, in his welcoming address to Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, June 4, at the Pleso Airport in Zagreb. He added that the Pope’s arrival is coming at a happy moment when Croatia is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its founding as a modern democratic state, a state which in its tenets has established the well-being of free individuals. It is an anniversary that coincides with the conclusion of our accession negotiations with the European Union. “You have come, Your Holiness, at a moment when the realization of the complete formal political integration of modern Croatia into the world to which Croatian culture has always belonged is clearly seen on the horizon,” said Dr. Josipović to the Pope, noting that the Holy See’s early recognition of Croatia as a state when this was crucial not only for the emergence of modern Croatia but for its very survival, played a key role in the political sense.
In Dr. Josipović’s address, he said that Croatia is a country with a long Christian tradition, with Catholicism as an essential element of the national and cultural identity of the majority of its citizens, committed to freedom of religion, to the right of religions to organize freely in accordance with their beliefs, to respect for the specific identities of the different confessions and respect for their legal status. It also supports the promotion of ecumenical and inter-confessional tolerance and dialogue.
“Your coming to Croatia as the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church on the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of our country also reminds us that we, as proud inheritors of Christian culture and civilization, must recall that love and reason were united in the very depths of the noble sacrifices of our fallen ones. I would like the sacrifices of our fallen, missing and maimed to obligate us all, every citizen of this country,” said Dr. Josipović, stressing how “the obligations from their sacrifices most powerfully extend to those among us who are entrusted by other citizens with the administration of the country, to us to whom their hard-earned money has been entrusted in order for us to serve them well and fairly. Corruption, whether moral or material, is diametrically against the well-being of citizens and the state, against the spirit of love and understanding, a direct betrayal of the sacrificed lives of those who died for Homeland, a direct betrayal of democratic values, and also a direct betrayal of the Christian heritage of which we are so proud in Croatia.”
“Based on its Christian roots, contemporary Croatia wants to be generous in forgiveness toward its neighbors, because through forgiveness we find the path to reconciliation, and in reconciliation to mutual well being. Croatia is not an island. Croatia lives in the world. Croatia lives with its neighbors,” said the President of Croatia, adding that, therefore, the basis of his domestic policy is to establish justice and fairness, and the basis of his international policy is forgiveness and reconciliation among nations.
Emphasizing that the Pope’s pastoral visit is largely devoted to the family, Dr. Josipović noted that under conditions of accelerated globalization, the penetration of mass media and social networks, our societies, and thus families, now face the unexpected challenges of the already evident changes in the traditional paradigms of relationships. “Regardless of the form of the family in contemporary life, it remains the fundamental unit upon which every society is built, including the Croatian society. Therefore, as stated in the Croatian Constitution, it is ‘under the particular protection of the state.’ We find ourselves confronted by a series of major questions for which we have yet to find answers. These days all of us, including myself, will listen to your thoughts, your words addressed to Croatian families, addressed to all of us about the family, very attentively,” said the President of the Republic of Croatia in his welcome to Pope Benedict XVI.