Zagreb (IKA) – The Fortieth Anniversary of the End of the Second Vatican Council: Expectations – Achievements – Challenges! is the theme of the 45th Theological-Pastoral Week, which was formally opened on January 25 in the auditorium of the Interdiocesan Seminary in Zagreb. The organizer of this scientific and pastoral meeting, which will last until January 27, is the Catholic College of Theology of the University of Zagreb.

The opening ceremonies were attended by the president of the Croatian Conference of Bishops and the High Chancellor of the CCT of Zagreb, Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanić; Archbishop Cardinal Vinko Puljić of Sarajevo; the president of the Bosnian and Herzegovian Conference of Bishops, Bishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka; the apostolic nuncio in Croatia, Archbishop Francisco-Javier Lozano; archbishops and bishops from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, deans and professors from the schools of theology in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, superiors of religious orders; the representative from the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Dr. Pavo Barišić; the vice chancellor for instruction and student affairs of the University of Zagreb, Dr. Vjekoslav Jerolimov; Mayor Vlasta Pavić of Zagreb, representatives of other Christian Churches, Mufti Ševko Omerbašić and approximately five hundred diocesan priests and religious, nuns and pastoral workers from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other European countries.

Cardinal Bozanić expressed gratitude to the Catholic College of Theology, University of Zagreb, for organizing this unique gathering of the Catholic Church among the Croatian nation and pointed out that the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the most important Church event in recent history is a call for the personal and collective assessment of everything that the Church has inherited from the Council. “Many questions are posed that require clear answers: how have conciliar guidelines been developed in the theology and pastoral activity of our Church, what has been achieved in the renewal of our Church communities and what does the Spirit say to us today in our encounter with new circumstances,” said the cardinal, noting that the Holy Father has observed that the conciliar texts have not lost their value or their radiance with the passage of years.

The week was officially opened by the dean of the CCT, Dr. Josip Baloban, who commented that it is justifiable four decades after the Council for us to ask to what extent the Church in our country is conciliar, if we have not succeeded in de-clericalizing the pastoral activity of the Church to a great extent; if our pastoral structures are more declarative and decorative than effective in character in the sense of cooperation, co-responsibility and joint planning; if the insights derived from Church-sociological research are poorly applied in pastoral practice; if the Croatian Christian, from the ordinary believer to the bishop, and perhaps the professor, prefers the external, that which is manifested and folk customs, to the patient, invisible, and what is essentially far more effective pastoral work that creates personal Christian habitus, which is capable of confronting all the challenges arising from the pluralistic Croatian society.

On this occasion, Dr. Baloban recalled the words of the great Pope Paul VI, who in the early 1970s said that former methods, which suited the needs of other social circumstances, no longer catch hold to the same extent in the society and mentality that were fundamentally replaced and that the modernization of pastoral methods was one of the goals of the Second Vatican Council. Dr. Baloban also said that forty years after the Council, we are confronting the question of whether we have found effective pastoral methods that suit the contemporary person, or have we, despite the use of the vernacular language in the liturgy, all the translated conciliar documents and rituals in the Croatian language, nonetheless allowed the Council to move slowly and imperceptibly into the archives. The dean of the CCT offered this for consideration and asked how much the pivotal aspects of the conciliar guidelines such as community, dialogue, ecumenicism, cooperation, co-responsibility and democratization, i.e. taking into account the hierarchical structure of Christ’s Church, have succeeded in coming to life in the Church in Croatia and our society. Let us take the Council from the archives, read its documents again carefully, and confront the conciliar teachings and our stagnant mentality with new social challenges urged Dr. Baloban, pointing out that the Croatian society needs responsible, honest and moral believers who, together with priests and pastoral workers as genuine intellectuals and people of spirit, will lead Croatia toward a better future.

Emphasizing that the Council was and is a great gift to the Church and an important experience, Bishop Komarica said in his words of greeting that it is necessary to speak about the Council, which is a task and challenge for the Church and the modern world. Dr. Barišić also delivered greetings, noting that the 21st ecumenical council is a great event that has become the symbol of the renewal of the Catholic Church. The Church has proclaimed openness as a task with the Second Vatican Council, and discussion with others and those who are different has become a permanent practice. Those assembled were also addressed by the representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Rev. Milan Topić; the representative of the Church of the Reformed Heritage in Croatia, Branko Berić; and Mufti Omerbašić, who together emphasized the importance of the Second Vatican Council and its documents regarding ecumenicism and inter-religious dialogue. Those assembled were also greeted by the mayor of Zagreb, Vlasta Pavić, who declared that she was proud to be the first mayor to address them in the forty-five-year history of this gathering.