Stara Gradiška/Jasenovac (IKA) – On the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Požega Diocese, the priests and deacons of the local Church led by Bishop Antun Škvorčević, on their fourth pilgrimage to the episcopal Marian shrines and visits to places of great human suffering, gathered on March 12 in a prison building of the former camp in Stara Gradiška, where numerous innocent people were incarcerated, humiliated and tortured during the time of the regime of the totalitarian systems in our homeland. At the beginning of the prayer commemoration, the priests sang the hymn Liljane bijeli nebeskog kraja (White Lily of the Heavenly Domain), composed by Anzelmo Canjuga, a former prisoner in Stara Gradiška. Then Bishop Škvorčević greeted all the assembled priests. He pointed out that after World War II the prison of Stara Gradiška was used as a prison for priests, in which the communist authorities, according to some statistics, placed over three hundred priests from all the regions of Croatia. Here these priests, sentenced to many years of incarceration under inhumane conditions, bore witness to faith in God and love of their nation. By this pilgrimage, continued the bishop, we want to draw nearer to all of them with a brotherly heart, full of love, respect and gratitude for their steadfastness in their faith in God and in their suffering, raising our prayer for the peace of their souls, especially those who died here and are buried in the prison cemetery. He pointed out that today we cannot visit the parish church of Stara Gradiška because it was demolished in 1948 at the order of the communist authorities, and still awaits rebuilding. He said that the dignity taken from the parishioners of this parish and the incarcerated priests who were forced to destroy this church during the time of the godless authorities will not be restored to them until a new church is built. He recalled to those present that rebel Serbs during the recent Homeland War organized a camp in Stara Gradiška, where many victims from the area of the Požega Diocese, especially Western Slavonia, were imprisoned. He appealed to the priests to pray that the persecution of innocent people never happens again, that there will never be war, and to help our community in its efforts to rebuild the parish Church of St. Michael in Stara Gradiška. Together with imprisoned priests, emphasized the bishop, it is necessary to count the civilian prisoners during and after the Second World War, and those who were imprisoned and tortured here in the recent Homeland War. After the presentation, the bishop and priests toured the prison cells and then departed for Jasenovac.

In the Memorial Museum of Jasenovac, the bishop and priests were met by the museum director, Nataša Jovičić, who in her greeting pointed out that this was a great event for her personally and for the institution she heads. She took the visitors on a tour of the permanent exhibition of the museum and briefly acquainted them with the work thus far and the projects planned in the future. Then the priests and deacons set off for a hall in the center of Jasenovac, where they were greeted by the Western Slavonian Serbian Orthodox Archdeacon Marko Pišonić, who introduced a lecture by Dr. Josip Jurčević from the Ivo Pilar Institute in Zagreb on the Jasenovac camp. In Dr. Jurčević’s presentation, he acquainted the priests with the origin of the Jasenovac myth said that until now the precise number of victims of this camp has not been scientifically determined. He recalled that many prisoners lost their lives, either through forced labor or execution, at the work camp in Jasenovac up to 1945. He furthermore noted that the camp was also in operation during the period from 1945 to 1948, about which the Croatian public still remains silent and has not initiated scientific research into the actual situation. After the lecture, there was a celebration of the Eucharist in the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas the Bishop, led by Bishop Škvorčević in concelebration with the priests present.

During the introduction to the celebration of the Mass, the bishop told the priests that through their visit to the Stara Gradiška prison camp and the Jasenovac Memorial they had renewed the truth of the weighty and dark facts, the inhumane and godless deeds that occurred in this region during and after the Second World War, all the way up to the most recent suffering during the Homeland War. He said that we still lack the complete truth about Jasenovac, freed from the manipulation of a specific ideology or propaganda, and that victims are still not being afforded their full dignity. “Deeply shaken by the mystery of evil, that spoke here with all its destructiveness, we, in the spirit of evangelical incentive which was provided by the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, the founder of our diocese, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee, and the letter of the Croatian Conference of Bishops on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the End of the World War II, condemn every crime perpetrated by anyone whatsoever, under any flag whatsoever, and in the name of any goal whatsoever, and we sincerely mourn every victim,” emphasized Bishop Škvorčević.

He urged the priests to raise their eyes to the cross of Jesus Christ, the innocent victim, in humility, penitence and forgiveness and to draw together in respect and love for each victim and his or her suffering and with humble hearts, together with the Crucified, pray for Divine justice, mercy and peace for all the innocents who were condemned and killed during the totalitarian systems that persecuted and killed people merely for belonging to a particular faith, nation, party or some other affiliation. “With our pilgrimage, penance and prayer, we draw near to those who are constantly attempting to provide spiritual satisfaction for all the crimes committed and the evil inflicted upon innocent people and we show our solidarity with every victim, without any differentiation. We mention Jews, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Roms, Muslims and the members of other nations and religions killed in the Jasenovac camp. We are aware that each victim deserves mention, that each has his or her own dignity, each is worthy of our sorrow and respect, and we entrust all to God’s love,” emphasized the bishop.

In an act of penance, the bishop also prayed for God’s mercy for all who devised and implemented the inhumane totalitarian system of violence, murder and injustice against innocent people during the 20th century, and those who in these difficult times betrayed their Christian names and wounded the Church. In a penitential exclamation, he included all those who killed innocent people after the Second World War due to ideological reasons in the Stara Gradiška and Jasenovac camps, Bleiburg, Vukovar and other death marches. He prayed for God’s mercy for those who did not permit the objective investigation of the full truth about all the victims, but used them to settle some of their accounts, and prayed for forgiveness for those who had under-reported the number and severity of the crimes perpetrated because many of them were manipulated. With gratitude, he spoke of the numerous martyrs and witnesses, led by the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, who in those sad times stood tall and remained faithful to the end to their consciences and God, enduring persecution, imprisonment, torture and murder.