Vienna, (IKA) – Croats from Austria are looking forward to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Croatia. According to the website of the Catholic Church in Austria (www.katholisch.at), buses from Vienna, Burgenland, Graz and Klagenfurt will bring the faithful to Zagreb.
The Croatian Section of the Office of Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese in Eisenstadt is organizing a two-day pilgrimage.
In addition to participating at the Mass in the Zagreb Hippodrome, the Croats from Austria will also visit the Croatian National Shrine in Marija Bistrica.
The website provides a brief description of the circumstances of Croats in Austria, noting that of 172 parishes in Burgenland, pastoral ministry is conducted in the Croatian language in 36 of them. There is also a short historical text about the arrival of the Croats to that region. It is also stated that the Croatian Section of the Office of Pastoral Ministry of the Diocese in Eisenstadt was established in 1979, and that the current Bishop of Eisenstadt, Egidije Živković, is a Burgenland Croat.