Zagreb, (IKA) – The Feast of Our Lady of the Stone Gates was celebrated on May 31 of this year, the City of Zagreb Day, with a Holy Mass in the Zagreb Cathedral led by the archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick. Following the celebration of the Eucharist, a procession of approximately ten thousand people carried the picture of Our Lady of the Stone Gates from the cathedral to the shrine at the Stone Gates.
The concelebrants included the archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić; the apostolic nuncio in the Republic of Croatia, Archbishop Francisco Javier Lozano; Archbishop Marin Barišić of the Split-Makarska Metropolis, Archbishop Ivan Devčić of Rijeka, Archbishop Ivan Prenđa of Zadar, Bishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka, Military Ordinary Bishop Juraj Jezerinac, Bishop Marin Srakić of Đakovo-Srijem, Bishop Marko Culej of Varaždin, auxiliary bishops and numerous priests. The Mass was also attended by the mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić.

At the beginning of the Mass, Cardinal McCarrick, on his fifteenth visit to Croatia, was greeted by Cardinal Bozanić, who pointed out that the presence of the archbishop of Washington on this occasion was testimony to his many years of friendship with the Croatian nation and the Church in Croatia. As a token of gratitude for his presence in Croatia in 1998, when Pope John Paul II beatified the Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, Cardinal Bozanić presented Cardinal McCarrick with a bust of the beatus. Cardinal Bozanić urged the faithful to include the victims of the recent earthquake in Indonesia in their prayers, for whom the collection at the Mass was intended.

In the sermon, which Cardinal McCarrick delivered in the Croatian language, he noted that the beginnings of his ties with Croatia went back thirty-five years, when he was the secretary of the Venerable Cardinal Terence Cook and met Cardinal Šeper, who was visiting New York. He reminisced about his friendships of many years with Cardinal Franjo Kuharić and Cardinal Bozanić. “I placed my service under the protection of Mary the Queen, and in my bishop’s coat-of-arms the central motif is a simple crown symbolizing that she is the Queen of my priesthood and episcopal service. Today she reigns in heaven as the Queen of the Croats, wherever they may be,” said Cardinal McCarrick.
At the completion of the Mass, a procession formed in which Cardinal McCarrick, Nuncio Lozano, Cardinal Bozanić, archbishops, bishops, priests, religious, nuns, Church associations and the faithful participated. The procession proceeded from the Zagreb Cathedral to the Stone Gates, where there was veneration of Our Lady of the Stone Gates in prayer, traditions and song.