Zagreb, (IKA) — The feast day of the patron saint of the city of Zagreb, Our Lady of the Stone Gates, was commemorated on Saturday, May 31, with a High Mass concelebrated by the archbishop and metropolitan of Zagreb, Msgr. Josip Bozanic, together with the apostolic nuncio in the Republic of Croatia, Giulio Einaudi; the president of the Bosnian and Herzegovina Conference of Bishops, Msgr. Franjo Komarica; all the bishops of the metropolis and numerous priests. This liturgical celebration marked the conclusion of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Zagreb Ecclesiastical Territory, and also marked the beginning of preparations for the celebration of Central European Catholic Days. There were also elements of spiritual preparation for the imminent third visit by the Holy Father Pope John Paul II to Croatia and the Second Synod of the Zagreb Archdiocese.

At the beginning of the Mass, Nuncio Einaudi read the text of a blessing that the Holy Father sent via the secretary of state of the Holy See, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Zagreb Ecclesiastical Territory, in which he expressed the wish that remembrance of that day would provide renewed impetus for Church communion and new evangelization. Archbishop Bozanic pointed out that the celebration of the anniversary of the metropolis as God’s gift to the local Church was also the start of preparations for the Second Synod of the Zagreb Archdiocese
On the eve of the third visit by Pope John Paul II to Croatia, the archbishop invited the assembled faithful to prepare for this gift, with particular emphasis upon the motto of the Holy Father’s visit: “The Family — the Path of the Church and Nation.” Explaining that the family, born of love, inscribed in the innermost depths of human existence, is the response to our need to escape loneliness and create communion, based upon the giving of ourselves, the archbishop pointed out that today’s culture seems imperceptibly to etch talk of equal rights and absolute freedom into our consciousness, forgetting about giving.

On this occasion, the archbishop urged the faithful to attend the encounters in Croatia with the Pope, who will be coming Saturday to Osijek, a city within the Zagreb Metropolis, and who is coming to strengthen the faithful in their faith and conclude the Metropolitan Jubilee. On Friday in Dubrovnik, the Blessed Alojzije will be joined by a new blessed one, Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified (Marija od Propetoga Petkovic), who on Pentecost in Rijeka, below Trsat, will commend our families to the intercession of the Holy Nazarene Family, and who in Zadar on Whitmonday (the Monday following Pentecost), will place our homeland under the protection of Mary, the Mother of the Church. Only fifteen days later, on June 22, a Catholic layman born in Banja Luka whose professional life was spent in Zagreb, the Venerable Ivan Merz, will be elevated to the honor of the altar in Banja Luka.

The Mass was followed by a procession with the painting of Our Lady of the Stone Gates. At the square below the Zagreb Cathedral, Bishop Marin Srakic of Dakovo and Srijem, Bishop Marko Culej of Varazdin and Archbishop Bozanic prayed for the Synod of the local Church and the Metropolis, after which the procession continued toward St. Mark’s Square in the Upper Town. After the prayer of the surrender of the city of Zagreb to Our Lady, composed by the late Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, Archbishop Bozanic and the other bishops returned the painting of Mary to its place in the Shrine at the Stone Gates. (838en)