“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Holy Father,

On behalf of the assembled faithful at the historic Forum in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral of St. Anastasia, in the shadow of the pre-Romanesque rotunda of St. Donatus, the convent of the cloistered Benedictine nuns of St. Mary dating from the age of the Croatian national rulers, the bishop’s residence and the blue sea, I extend heartfelt greetings: Welcome, Holy Father!

We welcome you with our voices and hearts, with thunderous song, even more powerful than sung by our ancestors in 1177, who welcomed your predecessor, Pope Alexander III, to this city. Your pastoral visit to Zadar is a sign of your love for us. In you we see Peter, who confirms his brothers in their faith.

Today, you are in the heart of an ancient archdiocese that commemorates the 1,700th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Anastasia, born in Rome and martyred in Srijem (ancient Syrmia). Our Christian roots run deep and are the source of our today and tomorrow in faith. Today, we still bear the wounds from the 20th century and the three wars that grievously afflicted our people and sacral objects. The difficulties of transition that we are enduring, together with the other nations of Eastern and Central Europe, are not inconsiderable. The challenges of a consumer society are acutely evident in our society. This local Church is profoundly aware of them. These challenges have a particular impact upon our youth. On the other hand, Holy Father, we see and experience powerful signs of hope.

You are coming to us in the Year of Adult Catechesis, within the Three-Year Pastoral Plan. Holy Father, during the twenty-five years since you ascended to the Cathedra of Peter, you have spoken tirelessly of the new evangelization. Here before you today, we can bear witness to its fruits. We can testify to our experience: the faith preached by the apostles, transmitted for nearly two millennia in the parish communities, intensified and transmitted by us today via the old and new Church movements that Your Holiness accepts and promotes. With their growth in the parish communities grows the faith of individuals. Families are multiplied that accept life and in which religious callings are born. This is the best testimony to their merits, in the embrace of the one and only Church of Christ, assembled around you, the Vicar of Christ on earth, and the local bishops throughout the world.

Your pastoral visit to our Church and our homeland is focused on the family. The family will be the center of the pastoral efforts of the Zadar Archdiocese during the coming year. Your magisterium on the family occupies the central position. We want to follow you with our souls, hearts and faith in realizing God’s intentions with the family.

Holy Father, you are in a city where brilliant artistic landmarks embody a synthesis of faith and culture. In the ancient university, the first in Croatia, founded by the Dominican fathers in the 14th century and restored in this happy year of your visit to Zadar, the synthesis of faith and science is evident. Christianity has given this city its soul. You are in the city from which, in the opinion of the Polish historian Novacki, the first missionaries came to Poland, baptizing Prince Mieszko and many others. Krakow and Zadar are linked by St. Hedwig, Queen of Poland and Lithuania, and the image of St. Hedwig awaits you in Zadar on the sarcophagus of St. Simeon (sv. Simun), who received Our Lord.

Holy Father! In the name of all the faithful of this archdiocese, I pledge fidelity to Christ, to You and to the Church, because we are a people of St. Peter. This unforgettable day of your visit will be a source of new inspiration in the life of this local Church: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad” (Ps. 118, 24).

Msgr. Ivan Prenda, Archbishop of Zadar