Zagreb, May 2, 2000 (IKA) — The president of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, Archbishop Josip Bozanić of Zagreb, together with Cardinal Franjo Kuharić, Auxiliary Bishop Josip Mrzljak of Zagreb and a number of priests, celebrated a Mass last night for all workers at the Zagreb Cathedral, on the occasion of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. “With this Mass, we wish to join the Holy Father who conducted a celebration of the Jubilee of Workers this afternoon and the Holy Eucharist,” said Archbishop Bozanić at the beginning of his sermon. “At the dawn of the third millennium, in a different cultural atmosphere, it seems that this feast day is even more significant, to which the Holy Father himself wanted to attach particular importance in this Holy Year by celebrating the Jubilee of the Worker today.” Speaking about Jesus, the son of a carpenter, the archbishop of Zagreb said “he actually teaches us by his example that every job, including the simplest and the most arduous, has its own human dignity when based on the principle that the person who works is obeying the commandment of God the Creator.” The archbishop pointed out that numerous questions arise concerning“how to set a value on work, on various kinds of work, i.e. the type of work or the person who works. From this vantage point, is there perhaps no form of discrimination more unacceptable than in the area of just compensation for work and pensions?” asked the archbishop of Zagreb. He particularly referred to the relation between work and the family, pointing out how “it is essential to create good relations between work and the family, and it is very important to assist a worker so that he does not sacrifice the most profound values of family life. If it is true that unemployment creates serious problems in the life of a family, no less serious problems are created by excessive work, that does not recognize holidays or rest, that negates every moment for taking respite from work, contemplation and family life.”
At the conclusion of his sermon, the archbishop of Zagreb asked: “Is our society, in its various forms of expressions, truly working on its center? We urgently need a genuine cultural shift, a fundamental change in the culture, that should lead toward a general growth in the ethical values that are the foundations of entrepreneurship, cooperation, responsibility, and the war against criminality and corruption. We must conquer our fear of new risks that are the necessary prerequisites for creating new manufacturing activities.” For this work of renewal, the archbishop of Zagreb called upon politicians, businessmen, people of education, knowledge and culture and the mass media. “In this work of the renewal of the Croatian society,” the archbishop said in conclusion, “the Chruch is also called upon to participate in a special way by explaining and promoting its social doctrine.”