The Catholic Church in Bosnia has secured the protection of its rights and freedoms under a Concordat that came into effect last week, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

A Vatican statement said that the new Concordat fully recognised the Catholic Church's legal status, as well as freedom of worship and Catholic rights in culture, education and the media. It added that the document would allow military and hospital chaplaincies, and a wide range of charitable activities.

Documents ratifying the Concordat were exchanged during a visit to the Vatican by Zeliko Komsic, a Catholic ethnic Croat who heads Bosnia's rotating presidency, and Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo.

Catholics comprised 18 per cent of Bosnia-Herzegovina's population of 4.3 million before the 1992-5 war, compared to 44 per cent made up of Muslims and 35 per cent of Serbian Orthodox. But the country's four Catholic dioceses currently number fewer than half their inhabitants before the  conflict. Church sources said the Pope also received an invitation to Bosnia-Herzegovina from Mr Komsic.