Zagreb, (IKA) – A special plenary session of the Croatian Conference of Bishops was held on Monday, January 21, at the Secretariat of the CCB in Zagreb, with Bishop Marin Srakić of Đakovo and Srijem presiding. In addition to the active members of the CCB, the session was also attended by the bishop emeritus of Poreč-Pula, Msgr. Antun Bogetić, and the departing apostolic nuncio in the Republic of Croatia, Archbishop Francisco Javier Lozano, for whom this was the last plenary session of the CCB in which he participated because he would soon be going to serve as the apostolic nuncio in Rumania and Moldavia.
After an introductory prayer, the president of the CCB, Bishop Srakić, greeted the nuncio and the bishops and invoked the power and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, so that the conclusions and fruits would be beneficial to the Church and nation. He thanked the nuncio in the Republic of Croatia for his unselfish and devoted service to the Church and the Croatian nation, and wished him much success in his future exercise of the responsible and demanding office entrusted to him by Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop Lozano bid farewell to the Croatian episcopate, expressing his gratitude for everything he had experienced as the apostolic nuncio in the Republic of Croatia, especially for the publication of his book Hrvatska u mom srcu [Croatia in My Heart], which filled him with joy and pride.
The bishops adopted the Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of the Sacraments in the Community, one in a series of CCB documents that express the common concern and collegial activity of all the members of the CCB, particularly regarding the pastoral situation and mission of the Church in the Croatian society. With this document, the bishops are attempting to contribute to a deeper understanding and more joyful celebration of the sacraments in the parish community, which help build it and promote authentic testimony in today’s world.
Questions were also discussed in connection with the implementation of the Contract on Catholic Catechesis in Public Schools and Religious Education in Public Preschool Institutions, signed by the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the CCB on January 29, 1999.
The agenda also included the Catholic media. The bishops wholeheartedly recommended the valuable and useful contents of the printed and electronic Catholic media to priests in pastoral ministry, which they should recommend to the faithful as a means for the evangelization of overall public life. At a time of aggressive secularization, this is one way to preserve the Catholic values that incorporated in the foundations of our culture. The bishops also discussed several personnel questions in the offices and institutions of the CCB and some solutions to improve their function.
The bishops spoke about the celebration of the Year of St. Paul that Pope Benedict XVI announced to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the People, from May 28, 2008 to May 29, 2009. A celebration was also announced of the tenth anniversary of the CCB Center for the Promotion of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which will be held on April 25 in Zagreb.
During the continuation of the session, the bishops also considered several current questions regarding the Church and society in Croatia, according to the Secretariat of the CCB.