Zagreb, (IKA) – Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanić sent a Christmas message to the faithful in which he points out that Christmas is an event of God’s love, a manifestation of God’s proximity that has no end, that is not limited to our homeland or mood, but from which we can distance ourselves in our freedom and weakness. God has created us wonderfully and given us dignity. He has revealed to us that his work is never detrimental to our good and his judgment does not demean our humanity. God revealed human dignity to us in his Son, in the form of a Child, and urges us to know and be aware of it, stated the cardinal, and explained that every person, regardless of personal opportunities, the ability to work, education and social influence, wealth or poverty, health or sickness, is created as a participant in divine life.

Recalling the fall of the communist system twenty years ago, which from one side deprived the public of Revelation and, from the other side, where it saw that the aggressiveness of the repressive system was not effective, relegated religion to the area of privacy, the cardinal noted that the culture of Christmas survived the external social violence of totalitarianism, just as it had been born amidst lack of comfort in Bethlehem, under threats, but also in the need for Love to survive. Furthermore, he cautioned that for twenty years, after the restoration of the opportunity to continue building the culture of the public celebration of Christmas in Croatia, we are confronting new tendencies that ignore this culture, although outwardly apparently ubiquitous. “As a wall of privacy was formerly provided for faith, the Church and its works, so that the content of the truth would not penetrate the walls of the ideology of lies, thus today’s lack of selectivity, which does not follow the dynamics of Christian revelation, breaks down the relationship between private and public. Therefore, it should be emphasized that Christmas safeguards a culture that does not neglect privacy, while at the same time promoting that which is public,” said the cardinal.

Commenting that there are many areas in which this equilibrium has been disturbed, the cardinal states that this certainly has roots in a lack of respect for the mystical in the world and man, in the emptiness and superficiality of the attitude toward God – the source of all creation, and then spills over into the area of education from the earliest level, undermining the strength of family intimacy, entering models of communication among people, and strengthening the mechanisms of curiosity to the limits of bad taste. However, individual parasitic representatives of the media feed upon this bad taste and curiosity as faithful allies, frequently intentionally and sometimes unintentionally breaking down the genuine Christian culture, warned the cardinal. In the cardinal’s opinion, “the bitter fruits of such an approach are the violation of trust, obliteration of responsibilities and the eradication of dignity, as reflected in the magnitude of the weakening of the values of the fundamental institutions of the society.”
“We are not deceived, regardless of however much some assert the opposite, that faith, the most sacred area, which inevitably seeks public manifestation, is still not afforded due acceptance in Croatian public life, relegated to the zone of privacy. Sometimes the faithful who are ashamed of their faith and its sincere manifestation are at fault. However, at the same time, much that is tasteless is labeled “Christmas.” From such relations, it is not difficult to arrive at the incomprehensible contradictions experienced not only in our society but throughout Western society. It has reached the point that Christmas has become an acceptable framework for the celebration of various contents, for the manifestation of celebrations with opposite connotations. This can easily be transformed into the dichotomy of customarily praising Christmas but existentially being far from it, raising questions about the acceptability of the presence of the symbol of Christian faith in public,” warns the cardinal.

Addressing families, the cardinal states that he knows that many of them are torn by the difficulties of life and experiences that bring unrest, due to various earthly uncertainties. He urges them not to forget that they belong to a large family – the Church. “It is important to raise your children and the young in the Word of God and willing sacrifice, to speak with them, to follow them, to open the fields of Christian treasure to them, as particularly evident in parish life and Sunday celebrations. Do not allow children to be brought up by the streets and those who in the name of “advanced ideas” would distance them from God and from you. When you feel helpless, stop and pray. Pray together in the family, teaching the children to pray. Spouses and engaged couples should pray together, so that the love from which you can live will not be extinguished when there is insufficient light,” urges the cardinal.
He also tells families that they should not succumb to despair or lightly trust those who spread fear. “If there are tension, discord and strife in the family, among relatives, think about everything today and do not let hatred win, so that the path of enmity no longer continues. Find a little time and go to confession at Christmas. Allow God [in] so that you can embark upon a new beginning with Him. He does not come to demean us. He liberates us from fear and opens the path of hope,” emphasized the cardinal.