Zagreb, (IKA) – The 47th Theological-Pastoral Week, on the topic of The Theological-Pastoral Approach to Politics – The Christian Identity in Contemporary Society, was held from January 23 to January 25 at the Interdiocesan Seminary in Zagreb on Šalata. It concluded with a plenary discussion on this topic. Mention was made of lectures discussing countries that had experienced certain crises. The questions were asked whether this was our path, what should be protected and from what, said Cardinal Josip Bozanić, adding that it is necessary to guard against overemphasizing the privacy of religion. The archbishop of Zagreb recalled that our Church throughout history and during the trying times under the communist regime knew how to preserve the folk dimension. This was particularly evident in the close relationship between the priests and their parishioners. Emphasizing that this folk dimension of our Christianity must be preserved and carried over into contemporary times, the cardinal said that it is particularly important for faith to be constantly transformed into culture. This relationship between religion and culture, according to the cardinal, is achieved with the parish as the base. He pointed out that the parish should always be a school of faith that knows how to gather not only children but also adults, a place in which the lay faithful should be trained to provide testimony of the hope they bear within themselves, in order for them to be able to explain and represent their faith, and they should be encouraged to represent certain positions and values.
The Cardinal also spoke about the presentations that discussed the educational level and recommended that we direct our attention to young persons between the ages of 15 and 25 year of age, because whoever is close to them today will have the future tomorrow. He also commented on the European Meeting of Young Adults that was held in Zagreb and organized by the brothers from Taizé. He pointed out that after the meeting the brothers from Taizé remarked that many young people from various countries in Europe mentioned that their colleagues from Croatia spoke about the Church as their Church, something they had not experienced everywhere.

The dean of the Catholic School of Theology of the University of Zagreb, Dr. Tomislav Zdenko Tenšek, proclaimed the conclusion of 47th Theological-Pastoral Week. Thanking the lecturers, Dr. Tenšek said that they helped confront the question of politics from the theological-pastoral aspect, pointing out the need for Christians to confront politics, although there is also the danger that political speech can lose evangelical power, without which Christians lose their Christian identity in society. “As Christians, it is as if we did not know how to cope in the new democratic society. Therefore, it happened and is happening that we approach politics as if it had nothing to do with the evangelical demands and mission. It not infrequently occurs that we as Christians are either apolitical or assume political positions without taking the evangelical postulates into account,” said Dr. Tenšek.