Gospić (IKA) – Upon receiving the news on the evening of April 2 that Pope John Paul II had died, Bishop Mile Bogović of Gospić-Senj issued a statement to the media in which he emphasized the following:

What the pontificate of Pope John Paul II signified to the Church and the world is already clear in many aspects, while further developments will reveal even more. His clear and unremitting evangelical globalization was oriented toward all those who sought the harmonious community of all of mankind. We can already say that a saint, a great man of today and a great pope has died. We can also add that he was a great friend of Croats and Croatia.
It is difficult to number all the things that John Paul II did for us Croats. During his three visits, the nation clearly expressed its attitude toward him and toward his messages. Before this good and noble man, our nation demonstrated that it aspired to the virtues that he proclaimed and embodied. Like a magnet, he brought that positive energy in our nation to the surface, helped us to express it and helped both us and the world to recognize it.
It is clear that this positive picture of ourselves should not deceive us into believing that we do not have other, worse qualities. The Pope wanted to activate our goodness, knowing that only then would we be capable of overcoming bad tendencies when our goodwill and nobility were unified; that we would more easily seek forgiveness and forgive others when goodness and trust are activated within ourselves than when all are constantly forcing us to fall on our knees.
When it is seen with what eyes the Pope saw our nation, it becomes clearer to us why he so insistently urged our entry into the European community. The Pope in no way looked upon us as a poor beggar of European wealth but as a people who could enrich Europe in many things, in that which it is lacking. He believed that we Croats could help Europe to renew its Christian soul. Therefore, he did not want us to move toward Europe through the gradual loss of our Christian and Catholic identity.

The Pope saw danger in the new millennium from the carryover of accumulated dangers from the previous millennium. He called the attention of the whole world to those who had known how to live and sacrifice for others. He also sought such persons among us and set them before us as models. Among all of them, there is a marked readiness to carry the weight of the cross for another.
The Pope, through the bearing of the cross of his illness, bore faithful witness to the messages that he delivered to the world, even to the end. He also spoke through his illness and at the end through his silence.
Many will say with justification that it is necessary to make plans and programs from his words to assure better days for our nation and homeland, for which the Pope prayed, and for which, we believe, that he is now interceding before the throne of God.
We initiated one such project with the building of the Church of the Croatian Martyrs in Krbava (Udbina). On June 8, 2003, the Pope blessed the cornerstone for this church in Rijeka. It should be a call to prepare our lands for better days with work and sacrifice. It was for this that John Paul II also prayed, noted the bishop.
We are grateful to God that during our difficult trials it was precisely this Pope who was the Successor of St. Peter. It is difficult to imagine that anyone else would have had so much understanding and love for us. When one considers what moral authority he enjoyed in the world, his attitude toward Croatia acquires even greater significance. The faithful of our dioceses shall remain ever grateful to him for having established a new episcopal and spiritual see: the Gospić-Senj Diocese.
Thanks to God who gave us John Paul II. Thanks to the great Pope for the goodness with which he enriched us. May God rest his soul, concluded Bishop Bogović.