Vatikan, (IKA) “It is a great gift for the Croatian people that Pope John Paul II is coming to visit Croatia for the third time in the past nine years. We are cognizant of this gift and therefore immeasurably grateful to the good God. We await God’s Herald with the same fervor that we awaited him on previous visits,” said the archbishop of Zagreb, Msgr. Josip Bozanic, in an interview for the semiofficial Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, published on June 5 in a special section that is entirely devoted to Croatia and the Pope’s hundredth journey outside of Italy. The main topics discussed in the interview were preparations for the Pope’s arrival, the current situation of the Church in Croatia and the central theme of the Pope’s visit.

“The Pope is coming to us,” said Archbishop Bozanic, “which is like a gift bearing a gift – a new blessed one, thereby bestowing recognition upon our Christian witness.” Reflecting on the Pope’s previous two visits to Croatia, Archbishop Bozanic said that in 1994 the Pope came to bring a message of peace at a time when the wounds of war were not healed. In 1998, continued Archbishop Bozanic, the Pope beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and linked this event to the entire history of Christianity in the Croatian territories, “which is martyred and Marian, in a word a witness.”

Discussing preparations for the Pope’s third visit to Croatia, Archbishop Bozanic emphasized that prayer occupied first place among the preparations being made by the Church in Croatia. The Pope is coming in the Year of the Rosary. This is his hundredth journey outside of Italy, which will certainly attract great world attention. Archbishop Bozanic pointed out that the Rosary is a beloved prayer among the Croatian people and has followed them during their turbulent history, particularly at difficult moments. “Croatia is a Marian nation,” added Archbishop Bozanic, as witnessed by numerous Marian shrines where large numbers of pilgrims gather. “I particularly rejoice that we shall be able to congratulate the Holy Father and express our gratitude for his twenty-five years of pontifical service to the Church, here on our own soil, on his jubilee hundredth journey in the Year of the Rosary,” added the archbishop of Zagreb.

In the interview, Archbishop Bozanic spoke about the current circumstances of the Church in Croatia, noting how the processes of transition and democratization through which the young Croatian state is passing require new evangelization “as the primary pastoral task.” In reference to the motto of the Pope’s third visit to Croatia, The Family – the Path of the Church and Nation, Archbishop Bozanic said that this motto was intended to call attention to the importance of the family but also to the great problems and difficulties that the family in Croatian society must struggle with today. He noted that the family performs its task as the transmitter of biological life and faith under great adversities today, a consequence of which is the serious demographic crisis in the Croatian nation. Moreover, the family in Croatia has also been caught in the spiritual crisis of contemporary civilization “so that the family finds it increasingly difficult to transmit the religious and moral values to the new generations, resulting in the existential disorientation and wandering of children and young people. . . . The consumer mentality and omnipresent individualism distorts the concept of marriage and the family, thereby not only endangering the stability of marriage and the family but the very life of the nation. The family is a ‘domestic Church’ or a miniature Church. Therefore, the renewal of the Church begins with the renewal of the family,” noted Archbishop Bozanic. Citing the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, which states that in the contemporary world the future of mankind is in the hands of those who are able to transmit the reasons for life to future generations, the archbishop pointed out how “investment in the upbringing of the new generations means investment in the future of the Church and nation.” “Actually,” he added, “the Church in Croatia invests major efforts.”

The great challenge confronting the Church in Croatia, according to the archbishop, is the public and consistent presence of Catholics in civic life. Particular effort by the Church in Croatia during recent years has been focused on the formation of laity for involvement in the Church. Such formation is being achieved at our institutions of theology and catechetics. Archbishop Bozanic also noted that numerous religion instructors for the schools are being prepared at such institutions, expressing satisfaction at the large percentage of children and young people who freely choose catechesis in the schools. In this context, he referred to the synods being held or prepared in the Croatian dioceses that “seek to include all the layers of the Church and all forms of Church life, calling upon all the faithful to join in the new evangelization, consciously and responsibly.”

As the central theme of the Pope’s visit, Archbishop Bozanic first mentioned the call to holiness because the Pope requested that all the pastoral planning should be devoted to holiness. The president of the Croatian Conference of Bishops noted that the bishops had responded to the Pope’s invitation, citing the publication the pastoral guidelines at the beginning of the third millennium entitled Called to Holiness. “Making pilgrimages throughout the world, the Pope gives the Church new saints and blessed ones. In saints, the Church recognizes the most perfect fruits of the Gospel and the faithful receive a firm orientation for their Christian life. On the Holy Father’s third visit to Croatia, he will beatify Mary of Jesus Crucified Petkovic in Dubrovnik,” said Archbishop Bozanic.

As a second central theme, Archbishop Bozanic mentioned the family, as expressed by the motto of the Pope’s third visit: the Family – the Path of the Church and Nation. “We especially pray for the renewal of families that encounter problems in connection with the upbringing of children and the unfavorable economic situation in postwar Croatia.” We wish to encourage the family to be a source of life, callings and holiness,” said the archbishop of Zagreb.

“Through this visit, we also wish to testify to our centuries of fidelity and devotion to the Cathedra of Peter and his Successors, and likewise at the beginning of the third millennium to renew our fourteen centuries of fidelity to Christ and his Church. Fortified in our faith, we shall be able to work even harder on the spiritual and moral renewal essential for transmitting faith to future generations,” said Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb at the end of his interview for the Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.