Croatian Cardinal Holds Mass On Statehood Day
Jun 25, 2007
The Zagreb Archbishop Josip Bozanic expressed concern over the intensity of violence in our society during the mass.
(javno.com, June 25, 2007) The president of the Croatian Bishops Conference, Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanic held a mass for the homeland on the occasion of the Statehood Day at the Zagreb St. Mark Church in the Zagreb Upper Town. The Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Vladimir Seks, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and the government vice-presidents and officals were in attendance.
In the homily, the Zagreb Archbishop pointed out that, even though abuse is possible, by the term “homeland,” we mean the experience of the beautiful. “Homeland is a close and familiar space; a space of confidence and seclusion, safety and beauty. It is the world of our emotions, decisions, socializing and yearning; those are celebrations and successes; our worries and love for people… No matter how much some people minded the world homeland, no matter how much they wished to present it as a relic from some past, romantic era, to us, it is a theological place. To a religious person, homeland is also always the relationship with God,” said Bozanic.
According to the Archbishop’s words, when a person does not have a homeland, when he or she is denied the experience of home and the environment of closeness, fear is born.
“It should not be baffling that many of our contemporaries are in fear of the future because they feel that they are not in control of events, that they are becoming prey to unknown forces, that rootedness is taken away from them. Some react by giving in to resignation, apathy; others try to withdraw into isolation, seeking protection in nature; others reach for aggression which is often covered with the mask of entertainment,” he said.
The Zagreb Archbishop voiced particular concern “over the presence and intensity of violence in our society.”
“Today, it seems important to me to warn of this reality, the causes of which are not being sufficiently investigated and consequences are not being cured and it does not only refer to the state organs, but primarily to each citizen's attitude toward life,” he said.
In the Cardinal’s opinion, the first cause of this is putting everything we do in the service of our own interest. “Seeking and achieving one’s own benefit, at any price, in light of one’s own demands, is a logic that precedes violence in the effort [for one] to overpower another and come to rule others all the way to humiliation,” he said, pointing out that this happens starting with the family, neighbours, to social subjects and to justifying violence on the international level in relation to other civilizations and cultures.
He thinks that violence also occurs in the moments of choosing the wrong criteria. “He who does not see love and does not know duties and responsibilities and only demands his own rights, which are based on who knows what, and resorts to any form of violence for this, chooses death,” he said, adding that the next root of violence is the one that imposes force and violence as the source of truth and justice.
“The power that uses cunning, flattering, irresponsible promises, shady compromises and questionable persuasions, using blackmail as a means of dependency, does not deserve the name of democracy,” he pointed out.
The third root of violence and sick power, as he said, is the shallowness that seeks its own aggrandizement and creation of a false picture of size. To this idol, even the holiest feelings are sacrificed, the value of the word given in agreement, honesty and integrity in the meeting with the truth, he pointed out.
“Gospel says that we must focus attention and service on the person, on his responsible freedom and on building unity. It is a great danger to replace a person’s duties and rights with the rights of the individual,” he said, adding that, by emphasizing the rights of the individual, obligations and responsibility are neglected. This is a road that puts economy and the principle of profit in the centre. This tragic swap leads our culture into [acts of] barbarism and – as we could put it in biblical terms – into insanity, he said.
Talking about the unacceptable nature of violence in the Croatian society, Bozanic pointed out that none other than Christians, their feelings of holiness, are a frequent target of the violence.
“The state has the obligation to guarantee respect in the public space, in which offending others’ religious and other feelings cannot become the manner of conduct with others. An art, culture and science that offends cannot be acceptable and it denies its own self and it can be categorized as a self-annihilating lie,” he said.
Reminding that we are witnesses to violence in families, at schools and educational institutions, he said that the logic of violence has found a way that is different than the one familiar so far. The violence of the older against the younger is accompanied by violence among pupils and – in particular – violence against teachers, professors and educators who are often helpless because of the supposed protection of pupils’ rights, because in these kinds of rights and liberties, authority that reflects true values cannot nest, he said.
The Archbishop warned that physical violence at work is also accompanied by threats that feed on blackmail. “This is the price that is paid for terrible concessions, which too often become almost acceptable in the field of economy and politics,” he said, adding that the logic of violence often uses media space and manifests there as the violence of untruth, the violence of image and sound.
Croatian Cardinal Holds Mass On Statehood Day