Zagreb, (IKA) – At the Secretariat of the Croatian Conference of Bishops in Zagreb, a press conference devoted to the main topics discussed at the 34th Plenary Session of the Croatian Conference of Bishops was held on April 19. Journalists were addressed by the vice president of the CCB, the archbishop and metropolitan bishop of Split-Makarska, Marin Barišić; the archbishop and metropolitan bishop of Rijeka, Ivan Devčić; the new bishop of Varaždin, Josip Mrzljak; and the bishop of Poreč-Pula, Ivan Milovan.
Archbishop Barišić spoke about the pastoral activity that was one of the topics of the session. He emphasized the need for a breakthrough in parish pastoral work in order for the parish to be a collocutor of the contemporary person, for pastoral activity to be more suitable for our age and the mentality of the people of today, and for the parish to cultivate the lay faithful to be true witnesses of Christ. He warned of the danger of the parish becoming a symbol of conformity and monolithic. On the contrary, Archbishop Barišić emphasized a plural community, the expression of community in variety. Therefore, as he said, new communities and movements such as Neocatechumens and Focolarini are welcome. In addition to them, he also mentioned an entire series of small communities that are active in parishes such as biblical communities, charitable communities, communities of young persons and others. He expressed the desire for the parish community to be rich with these small communities and pointed out that the pastor is not the head of the parish but the coordinator. The parish, said Archbishop Barišić, must be a shared community. There is increasing interest among parishes in spiritual seminars. Besides all the positive aspects of such seminars, Archbishop Barišić warned of the inherent dangers. As the archbishop said, instant religiosity that is quickly kindled but also quickly extinguished is typical of them. Moreover, excessive emphasis is placed upon health and recovery, which in our time, when health has become religiosity, are very attractive topics. One of the negative consequences is that those who participate in such seminars leave them restless and in a way distance themselves and view the parish with disparagement. Despite this, the parish wants to cultivate believers in a healthy spirit, i.e. not introverted believers but believers confronting the problems of today’s world and culture, concluded Archbishop Barišić.
Bishop Mrzljak, who is also the president of Croatian Caritas, spoke about some initiatives that Croatian Caritas has launched recently, such as the week of solidarity and community with the Church and People in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, Caritas also wants to act on the international level and he mentioned the battle against hunger in the world, to which Croatian Caritas wants to make its contribution and which it considers one of its tasks. The city of Varaždin, announced Bishop Mrzljak, will be the host of a meeting of Catholic young persons on April 26 and 27 of next year. He also said that at the session of the CCB, there was also mention of the World Youth Day that will be held next year in Sydney and ways were discussed about how to collect funds in order for Croatian young persons to be present at that gathering. At the end, Bishop Mrzljak said that at the session there was also mention of the need to honor the victims of World War II and the Homeland War, emphasizing that this is still an open topic that will be discussed further.
Bishop Milovan announced a pilgrimage of priests from all of Croatia to Istria, which will be organized together with the 60th anniversary of the martyr’s death of the Servant of God Miroslav Bulešić, for whom preparations are underway for the proclamation of his beatification. The goal of this pilgrimage is to encourage priests in their calling. The pilgrimage will be held on August 24.
At the end, Archbishop Devčić invited journalists to the celebration of World Communications Day, to be held on May 15 in Zagreb, on which occasion the 10th anniversary of Croatian Catholic Radio will also be commemorated. The archbishop of Rijeka also announced a joint session of the Croatian Conference of Bishops and the Austrian Conference of Bishops. The Austrian bishops will stay in Croatia from May 30 to June 1. The main topic of the joint session of the two bishops’ conferences will be pastoral work with tourists of the German-speaking regions in Croatia and the challenges of the Church in the European Union. Archbishop Devčić also announced that the Third Croatian-Slovenian Pilgrimage will be held on August 18 in Trsat. In closing, he pointed out that a document on pastoral activity regarding the sacraments is in preparation that will place strong emphasis on the family dimension of the sacraments, the quality of the preparation of adult believers for the sacrament of Christian initiation and improvement in the pastoral preparation for marriage.