Washington, D.C. (IKA) – On September 1, the archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić, who is visiting Croatian Catholics in the United States, had several important meetings in Washington, D.C. At the United States Conference of Bishops, he met with the leadership of the Committee to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, and discussed the state of the Church in Eastern Europe, the relations between church and state in Croatia, and the establishment of the Catholic University in Zagreb.

Afterwards, Cardinal Bozanić and the Croatian ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Neven Jurica, visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum, where they were awaited and greeted by the head of that institution, Sarah Bloomfield. The cardinal toured the museum and saw exhibits that testified to the horrific suffering of the Jewish people during World War II. At the end of the tour, the cardinal prayed in the hall where the names of all the camps where Jews perished are inscribed and lit a candle before the inscription of Jasenovac.

In the afternoon hours, Cardinal Bozanić met at the nunciature with the apostolic nuncio in the United States, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo. The day ended at the residence of the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who held a dinner in honor of Cardinal Bozanić. Besides the two cardinals, the dinner was also attended by Nuncio Montalvo.