Local Church pins hopes on papal visit

The Catholic Church in Bosnia-Herzegovina is hoping the visit of Pope Francis today will help reunite the country and draw international attention to “injustices and crimes” that remain unresolved two decades after a bloody war, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

Mgr Ivo Tomasevic, secretary-general of the Sarajevo-based bishops’ conference, told The Tablet: “We hope larger countries such as the United States, Germany and Britain will also take note of what [Francis] says and ensure this finally becomes a country where all citizens and ethnic groups enjoy equal rights and opportunities.”

The priest was speaking amid last-minute preparations for the one-day Sarajevo pilgrimage by Pope Francis, who will also meet local Christian and Muslim politicians and celebrate Mass for 65,000 in the capital’s Kosevo stadium.

Mgr Tomasevic said that the 1992-95 war had deprived Bosnia-Herzegovina of a third of its mostly Croatian Catholics, who made up the smallest of its three principal ethnic groups. He added that the bishops’ conference had repeatedly drawn attention to injustices in the country, which still had no constitution and was effectively governed by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord.

“The peace deal legalised war crimes and ethnic cleansing – and those who’ve benefited and taken more than they need aren’t going to agree to changes by themselves,” he continued.

Before the war, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s 4.3 million-strong population consisted of 18 per cent Catholics, 44 per cent Muslims and 35 per cent Serbian Orthodox. The number of people killed in the war is estimated at 100,000.