Marija Bistrica, September 14, 2003 (IKA) — At the celebration of the Mass conducted on the occasion of the 272nd votive pilgrimage by the faithful from Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, and young people of the Zagreb Archdiocese to national Marian shrine of Marija Bistrica, the archbishop of Zagreb, Josip Bozanić, spoke in his homily about the preparation for the Second Synod of the local Church and pointed out that in today’s circumstances the life of faith and its transmission are in danger. Faith is being exposed to attacks and corroded by known phenomena of secularization, religious apathy and neo-paganism. He added that the traditional ways of transmitting faith through upbringing in the families, schools, and Christian communities are increasingly fragile and sometimes cease entirely, so that to be a Christian today is a difficult and demanding task.
“Due to the general crisis in the communication process in Croatian society and the widespread tendency to think that the current moment absolute, there is a loss of feeling for the whole and for history. Furthermore, increasing cultural-religious pluralism is bringing the sole salvation through Christ into crisis and in some manner leading to an equalizing of all faiths, to a vision of a person who accepts only natural and material values, thereby reducing or even negating the spiritual and supernatural values. The rift between the Gospels and the culture that is increasingly emphasized in today’s society hinders the practice of a Christian life. For precisely this reason, the dominant criteria for judgment and choice today are not according to the Gospels and are sometimes not according to human reason,” pointed out Archbishop Bozanić.
To the assembled faithful, he said that the concrete renewal of fervor and the missionary attempts of the local Church should begin from the existing religious life in the parish communities and the Church realities. “To be a Christian and live in a Christian way in today’s society is truly a demanding challenge, most of all due to the spreading attitude of division and/or contradiction between the faith of confession, celebration and life in the Church community and faith in daily life: in the family, at work, in schools, in free time, on vacations; and in economic, social and political relations. We are in danger of closing ourselves off and being inclined toward a type of disembodied spirituality or even losing our Christian identity in daily life,” warned the archbishop. He explained that faith requires humble and bold consistency, that calls us to immerse ourselves completely and participate in cultural, economic, social and political events in the society. “We are not permitted to escape from the world! Faith calls us to wakeful observation in order for us to act always according to the goal of the kingdom of God. Only thus can Christians be the soul of the world,” said the archbishop of Zagreb. He pointed out that particularly from Christ’s lay faithful, faith requires the promotion of the “humane qualities” of the society, stressing the duty of working for the inviolable dignity and rights of every human individual, promoting the right to life of every person from conception to a natural death, and working for the general good.