On March 21st and 22nd, the 86th regular session of the Bishops’ Conference of BiH was held in the Bishop’s Ordinariate in Mostar, under the chairmanship of its president, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vrhbosna and the apostolic administrator of the Military Ordinariate in BiH, Msgr. Tomo Vukšić.
The present members of the BK BiH: the host, the bishop of Mostar-Duvno and the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan, Msgr. Petar Palić and the auxiliary bishop of Banja Luka, Msgr. Marko Semren, OFM, were joined by the president of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference, Msgr. Dražen Kutleša, Coadjutor Archbishop of Zagreb; delegate of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Msgr. Piero Coccia, archbishop of Pesaro in peace and bishop of Križevci, Msgr. Milan Stipić, who also has his flock in Bosnia Herzegovina. At the beginning of the session, the new apostolic nuncio to BiH, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt, participated for the first time.
Activity reports
After the prayer and the opening of the session, as well as the welcoming speeches, the members of the BK BiH reviewed the agenda.
Nuncio Chullikatt reflected on the 10th anniversary of the ministry of Pope Francis and called on the bishops to continue encouraging the members of their diocesan communities to pray for the blessed action of the Holy Father. He also spoke about the importance of the synodal process in the Church and about his more important meetings, especially about the conversation with representatives of the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After hearing the report on the participation of the BK BiH delegates in the continental phase of the Synod on synodality, in Prague from February 5th to 12th, the bishops elected the auxiliary bishop of Banja Luka, Msgr. Semren, as their delegate at the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in October in Rome.
Also, they considered the Proposal of the Rulebook on the work and organization of the Commission of the BK of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the protection of minors and vulnerable persons and gave the necessary guidelines for its refinement.
Dates of upcoming events
The presidents of all councils and commissions of the BK BiH gave all their written reports on their work in 2022. As a reaction to the report on the work of the Youth Committee at the Lay Council of the BK BiH, the bishops encouraged young people, who want and are able to, on April 15th, apply for participation in the World Youth Meeting in Lisbon, where a meeting with the Holy Father is planned.
They also agreed on topics for upcoming meetings: XVIII. meeting with members of the Conference of Senior Religious Heads of BiH in Sarajevo, April 26th; XIV. meeting with the Franciscan provincials in BiH, also in Sarajevo, April 26th; X. inter-dean meeting in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Travnik, April 27th; and III. meeting with the professors of the Catholic Faculty of Theology and the heads of the Vrhbosna Theological Seminary in Sarajevo on July 5th, and they gave guidelines for the celebration of the VI. family day in Kupres, July 30th.
Also, they continue to follow the war events in Ukraine with concern and have once again called on the faithful to pray for an end to war suffering. In addition, they thanked the numerous members of their archdiocese who generously showed the warmth of their hearts towards those suffering the consequences of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and sent a congratulation to the Pope on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his pontificate.
The working part of the session was preceded by a solemn liturgical celebration of the patron saint of the Mostar-Duvno diocese, St. Joseph, March 20th in Mostar Cathedral, when the concelebrated Holy Mass was led by Msgr. Kutleša. The bishops then took part in the ceremonial opening of the exhibition of the artistic and historical collection of the Mostar-Duvno and Trebinje-Mrkan Diocese in the Bishop’s Centre.
Press conference
At the end of the session, a press conference was held in the premises of the Diocese’s Ordinariate in Mostar, when the president and vice-president of the BK BiH, Msgr. Vukšić and Msgr. Palić, talked about the course and conclusions of the session.
Among the journalists’ questions were: church records regarding the departures and emigration of Catholic believers; what is actually behind the large emigration, especially of young people; how much the Church and other religious communities can do to soften the harsh rhetoric on the political scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina; whether, with regard to emigration, there was a request abroad for an increased presence of the Croatian-speaking Church; the situation in the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from which Metropolit Hrizostom of Dabrobosna stepped out, and about the hope and encouragement of the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the topic of hope, he said that the question “Is there hope?” is, of course, allowed in Christianity, but it is not Christian. “Christianity never doubts whether there is hope. There is always hope. Whether people will realize that hope in their lives or not is a completely different question. So, people are sometimes opponents of their own hopes (…) Sometimes they are too much on the wrong path to realize their noble hopes, to allow other people to realize noble hopes, but there is always hope (…) Jesus is the opponent of hopelessness. He is a divine witness of hope, and we want to be, to the extent possible, precisely witnesses to that”, said, among other things, the archbishop of Vrhbosna.
KT
