Pope concludes weekend visit to Croatia

(June 06, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI concluded an two-day pastoral visit to Croatia Sunday night, saying the weekend trip brought him close to the people. “Though brief, it has been graced with encounters that have made me feel part of you, and part of your history, and they have given me the opportunity to confirm the faith of the pilgrim Church in Croatia in Jesus Christ, our only Saviour,” the Pope wrote in a farewell message. The official farewell ceremony planned at Zagreb’s international airport was cancelled because of pouring rain and windy conditions. Instead the Pope and Croatian president Ivo Josipovic bade each other goodbye in the hangar with a handshake and exchange of the text of their messages. During his 33-hour visit to the Croatian capital, Zagreb Pope Benedict addressed Croatian civil society, met young people at a prayer vigil and celebrated Mass on Sunday for some 400,000 faithful on the occasion of Croatia’s first national family day. “May he who is infinite providence, the giver of all good things, always bless the land and the people of Croatia; may he grant peace and prosperity to every family,” the Pope wrote in his farewell message. A major event before his departure was an evening Vespers service with bishops, priests, religious and seminarians at Zagreb’s cathedral that houses the tomb of the great Croatian hero, Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb. Cardinal Stepinac defied Hitler during World War II to save Jews and then was persecuted by the Communists and died a martyr in 1960. The Pope encouraged Croatians to look to the former archbishop of Zagreb, who he said “was ready to die rather than to betray Christ" as a model "of apostolic zeal and Christian fortitude." Commending his Christian faith and conscience, the Pope said Cardinal Stepinac knew how to resist every form of totalitarianism, becoming, in a time of Nazi and Fascist dictatorship, a defender of the Jews, the Orthodox and of all the persecuted, and then, in the age of communism, an advocate for his own faithful, especially for the many persecuted and murdered priests." In his homily the Pope urged the Church of Croatia to nourish unity in order to deal with challenges in a changed social environment, finding new ways of evangelisation, primarily in services for young generations. The pontiff called on on bishops and clergy to be permanently committed to reconciliation among the divided Christians and to the reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.