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Pope hopes Croatia trip will impact all of Europe
By David Kerr
.- Pope Benedict said on June 8
that he hopes his visit to Croatia this past weekend “will bear abundant fruit
for Croatian families, the entire nation and throughout Europe.”
The Pope said at the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter’s
Square that the June 4-5 visit was characterized by what he called “an intense
spirit of faith.” In today's review of the trip, he said that he primarily
wanted to highlight his message to families delivered at the first annual Croatian
National Family Day on Sunday morning.
In an era of divorce and separation, the Pope said that “the
fidelity of spouses has become in itself a significant sign of the love of
Christ.” He described this witness as “the first
education in the faith” by which “children learn, without anything being said,
that God is love, loyal, patient, respectful and generous.”
“Faith in the God, who is love, is primarily transmitted through
the testimony of a faithful conjugal love, which naturally translates into love
for children, the fruit of such a union.”
Pope Benedict also recalled with affection his meeting with over
50,000 youngsters in Zagreb’s Ban Jelacic Square on
Saturday night.
“There I was able to meet the new Croatian generation, and I
felt the full force of their young faith, animated by a great enthusiasm for
life and its meaning, for the good, for freedom, that is to say for God.”
He explained that he was able to remind the young people that
God loved them first, a discovery that the Pope said “keeps us always disciples
and, therefore, always young in spirit!”
On Sunday evening, just prior to leaving Croatia, the Pope
prayed second vespers – or evening prayers – at the tomb of the former
Archbishop of Zagreb, Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, in
Zagreb’s cathedral. Blessed Aloysius was the leader of Croatia’s Catholics
through the Nazi invasion of the Second World War and then the communist
oppression in the subsequent years. He was jailed following a show-trial in
1952, died under house arrest in 1960 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in
1998.
“In the light of his testimony,” said Pope Benedict said at
today’s audience, “I encouraged bishops and priests in their ministry, urging
them to communion and apostolate.”
Finally, the Pope
commented upon his meeting with representatives of civil society – academics,
cultural figures and business leaders– at Croatia’s National Theatre in Zagreb
on Saturday evening. There he had outlined the importance of Europe to the
Church and the world.
“Once again it has been made
clear to all that Europe has a profound vocation to preserve and renew a
humanism that has Christian roots and that can be defined as ‘catholic,’ that
is, universal and whole.”
“It is a humanism that
lies at the center of the human being’s conscience, its transcendent openness
and, at the same time, its historical reality, which is capable of inspiring
political projects that are diverse but convergent in building a substantial
democracy based on the ethical values rooted in human nature itself.”
The Pope then asked the
pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square to pray to “the Virgin Mary, Queen of the
Croatians,” before imparting his apostolic blessing.