Zagreb, (IKA) – “I experience this appointment first of all as an expression of the confidence of Pope Benedict XVI but, at the level of the local Church, in the first place as an expression of the confidence of the archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić. Placing myself particularly at his disposal in episcopal service, I shall attempt to give the Church what God has given to me because I know that I have nothing of my own that would have any value before God. These days I have repeated ‘God is omniscient’ many times,” stated Msgr. Ivan Šaško on February 11, in the wake of his appointment as an auxiliary bishop of Zagreb. “Today I must thank God, regardless of what is waiting for me in my new office as an auxiliary bishop of the Zagreb Archdiocese,” he added. “Amidst a multitude of various emotions and questions, I am experiencing these days as something all people experience when they find themselves before decisions and steps that they know will profoundly mark their personal lives. However, in this appointment there is the dimension of the personal interwoven with a special responsibility for serving the Church. For this service, I frankly feel the weakness of my powers and my human frailty, to the extent that I can only find the final decisions and foothold in faith and trust in God. Although one often speaks of the concepts of honor, exaltation and dignity in connection with the episcopal service, it is, nonetheless, like every genuine Christian life, in the austerity and splendor of Christ’s cross, which can only be lived with faith in joy and with the taste of the Resurrection. I stand before a Mystery which I know surpasses me and at these moments it is better to listen than to speak; to pray than to make declarations,” emphasized Msgr. Šaško, adding that such an appointment also reveals the beauty of the Church in which a person in his weakness neither feels alone nor of the utmost importance, in which he accepts God’s will, albeit although very demanding and sometimes apparently too demanding, with new strength. I know that there are many of the faithful in our archdiocese and throughout the Homeland whom I have not met personally or become acquainted with, except in faith, who will support me in my frailty with prayer at these moments,” reflected the newly appointed bishop in a statement released by the Public Relations Office of the Zagreb Archdiocese.