Osijek, (IKA) — On Tuesday, September 17, the annual working meeting between the Commission of the Croatian Conference of Catholic Bishops for Relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church, led by Archbishop Marin Barišić of Split-Makarska, and the Commission for Dialogue of the Serbian Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Bishop Jovan of Zagreb-Ljubljana and all of Italy, was held in Osijek.
The working meeting between the four-member commissions of the two Churches was held at the monastery of Franciscan Capuchins, and began with common prayer. Meetings between these two commissions have been held for several years, according to Archbishop Barišić. The first was held in Zagreb (Croatia), the second in Novi Sad (Serbia) and this third meeting was held in Osijek (Croatia), a city that has always had large numbers of both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. The ecumenical movement was based upon a prayer octet for the unification of Christians dating back to 1927, in the Osijek Capuchin monastery which hosted this meeting.
During the meeting, there was discussion on the relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, with particular emphasis upon Croatia and actual pastoral problems, with the goal of advancing the activities of both Churches. “Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade have established exceptionally good cooperation among the schools of theology,” said Metropolitan Bishop Jovan, “and there is no reason for this not to expand, as has also occurred through the previously mentioned octet.” The Serbian Orthodox metropolitan bishop added that Christians speak much today about the Ecumenical Charter, a document that is the starting point of ecumenicism, as well as the inter-religious meeting held in Assisi in late January, at which he had been a participant, which was an opportunity for representatives of various religions to send a message to the world for the struggle against war and violence, so that all people could live a life of human dignity. “Christianity is inconceivable without dialogue and it has never been broken,” said Serbian Orthodox Bishop (Vladik) Amfilohije, “so that even when we were separated, we could not exist without each other. Therefore, we cannot imagine ourselves without dialogue and are oriented toward a community through life and tradition.”