Zagreb, February 1, 2001 (IKA) — On the occasion of Pro-Life Day and spurred by current events and conditions in Croatia, the Justitia et Pax Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops issued a public statement signed by the president of the Commission, Bishop Ivan Milovan of Poreč-Pula.
The statement stressed that the Commission supports public efforts and petitions to change the new legal regulations that reduce maternity benefits and urged the authorities not to turn a deaf ear. The Commission also expressed regret that the government authorities had not been more receptive to the repeated well-intentioned declarations from the Catholic Church on this question prior to the passage of these regulations, and expressed the hope that “this ill-considered and far-reaching harmful decision will not only be corrected as soon as possible but will be followed by a long-term plan for overcoming the grave demographic crisis in our country, which every citizen must take seriously … There is no more urgent task than this one, because nothing else is more crucial to our individual and collective future than families that will be ready and able to give birth to new members of the society. It bodes ill for a society in which grave diggers have more work than midwives!” reads the statement.
The Justitia et Pax Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops urged the government authorities during the increasingly severe crisis to provide more effective assistance to families with several children, e.g. employment, education and increased financial assistance. It appealed for the reinstitution of the status of educator to mothers of several children and urged religious communities to assist such families via Caritas.
The Commission also referred to the position of widows, pointing out that while a legal marriage is the only natural place for the birth of a human life, the legal regulations depriving widows who give birth of their rights to survivors’ benefits, as if they had entered a new marriage, are ethically unacceptable. “With such regulations, the state is driving women who become pregnant to have abortions in order to keep their survivors’ benefits,” read the statement.
The members of the Commission also urged the government authorities to provide more effective safeguards for the human rights and dignity of the refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo who have been lodged in private houses in Croatia and are no longer able to return to their own homes. The Commission pointed out that such families are in a difficult economic position and increasing numbers are literally starving. In cases of conflict between political options and the endangerment of human life, the Commission insisted that human life must take precedence. Therefore, the Justitia et Pax Commission of the CCB has issued a joint appeal with the Catholic Bishops of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, urging the religious communities to provide direct assistance to persons whose existence is threatened. “We also appeal to those responsible in the Republic of Croatia to actively promote the survival and prerequisites for the human dignity of the members of the Croatian nation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in accordance with the constitutional stipulations of the Republic of Croatia and international law,” said the statement.
In conclusion, the statement cited unemployment in Croatia, which places the lives of hundreds of thousands in jeopardy. “We urge the authorities, Croatian politicians and media to stop engaging in politics and mutual recrimination. Croatian citizens require more rapid, systematic and effective solutions to unemployment, and to numerous problems in connection with unemployment and living conditions that are rapidly changing during the time of globalization. We urge all public figures to fight for life and the culture of life under the new conditions in Croatia,” said the statement of the Justitia et Pax Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, signed by its president, Bishop Milovan.