‘Let papal visit improve Catholic rights’

The head of the Catholic Church in Bosnia-Herzegovina has said he hopes that the Pope’s June visit will bring new interest in his “forgotten country” and foster hope among Catholics 20 years after the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“Since the visit was announced, Bosnia-Herzegovina has moved away from the oblivion it was confined to by the international community and begun to exist again internationally,” said Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo. “There’s no equality between citizens here, and Catholics are particularly penalised. So the Pope’s presence is needed to give a strong impulse to the Catholic community in its attempts at fruitful dialogue with other confessions and religions.”

The 69-year-old cardinal was speaking amid preparations for Pope Francis’ 6 June visit to the Bosnian capital. In an interview on his archdiocese’s website, he said Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish leaders had agreed to help organise the pilgrimage, but added that he hoped it would also help tackle the serious problems facing Catholics since the end of the four-year civil war in 1995.

“The Dayton Accord effectively established the principle of ethnic cleansing,” Cardinal Puljic said. “ … Catholics do not exist for the European Union, which ignores us completely and has no sympathy for us.”