Zagreb, (IKA) – Archbishop Josip Cardinal Bozanić of Zagreb has invited everyone to attend the encounter with Pope Benedict XVI, who will pay a Church and State visit to Croatia on June 4 and 5 of this year.
In an interview given by Cardinal Bozanić to HTV (Croatian Television) on the occasion of the Pope’s forthcoming visit to our homeland and the faithful, aired May 22 on the program Dnevnik plus HTV, he emphasized that everything that is necessary has been done for the encounter with Pope Benedict XVI, as reported by HINA.
He said that it is difficult to say how much the visit by the Holy Father to Croatia will cost, noting “that from the side of the Church, but also the state, it is responsible to say that the visit has been prepared in such a way that the costs would be minimal.”
“These costs will range somewhere between 12 to at the most 14 million HRK. The Church will pay half, and the state half,” said Cardinal Bozanić.
He pointed out that for the Catholic Church in Croatia and the faithful, the Pope’s visit means a lot because the Peter of our days and the Vicar of Christ on earth is coming to visit us, a great event and experience for believers because they will be together with the Pope and pray with him, and he will he will have a message for them.
Moreover, said Cardinal Bozanić, the Pope’s visit means a lot for the country. On the one side, he explained, the leader of the Catholic Church is coming to Croatia, whom we can say is the greatest moral authority in the world and, from the other side, the head of state of a country, the Vatican, is coming, which was one of the first countries to recognize the Republic of Croatia, and we know what the Holy See meant at the beginning of our independence.
Asked whether the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Croatia, after his visits to Spain and England, is a part of the Pope’s broader strategy, since he travels far less than his predecessor, the Blessed John Paul II, Cardinal Bozanić responded that we can attribute the reason that the current Pope travels less to his age.
Cardinal Bozanić also noted that on the Pope’s table there are “many invitations,” and his visit was part of the plan of the Holy See and the Holy Father. Besides visiting Spain and England, he will also go to Germany and return to Spain this year for World Youth Day.
The Cardinal said that the Pope “gladly responded to our invitation” and “thereby is giving a sign to us, but also to Europe and the world.”
The theme of the Pope’s encounter with the Croatian faithful is the family. In response to the interviewer’s question concerning the extent to which Croatian families have recognized the Pope’s desire to be with them and how important the family is to the Pope, Cardinal Bozanić responded that the Pope is coming because of the First National Encounter of Croatian Catholic Families and his presence on this occasion indicates how important families and family topics are to him.
Thus, said, Cardinal Bozanić, the Pope is placing emphasis upon the importance of the family in the Church, as well as in today’s society.
“We are aware of the conditions in which our families are living and would like this visit by the Holy Father to motivate everyone in the Church, state and society to devote more attention to our families, not only in words but also in deeds,” said Cardinal Bozanić.
At the end of the interview, Archbishop Josip Cardinal Bozanić of Zagreb invited all the Croatian faithful to come to the encounter with the Holy Father, saying that the Pope is coming to us and that we are invited to come to meet him, to pray with him, to listen to his message and be with him on these days – the young, families and Catholic faithful.
In a way, added Cardinal Bozanić, we could say that every believer who can is invited to the encounter with the Pope, and all of us are personally invited to the great Mass of Croatian Catholics at the Hippodrome on June 5.