MESSAGE OF JUSTITIA ET PAX BKBIH COMMISSION REGARDING ACTUAL SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE COUNTRY

The president of the Commission Justitia et pax of the Bishop’s conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Msgr. Franjo Komarica, the bishop of Banja Luka, on March 26th 2018., gave the following statement:

Let us not lose hope that there is life and future here!Let us not lose hope that there is life and future here!

Deeply aware of the actual state and social and political processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on this occasion to myself and all the Catholics in our country, I call on the fact to our minds that the most important foundation of our trust in the history of humanity – and for our individual and common –is belief in God’s providence and his love. We are invited, as his believers, to lay our hopes in Jesus Christ. Let us not allow the injustice disappointment and slow social growth stops us doing good to others. Especially let us not allow anybody or anything to steel our firmly founded Christian hope that helps us stay on the side of Saviour of humans who defeated the evil and death and is the Path to eternal life. Deeply grateful to all people that do good and help us stay on the path of good and firmly believing in God’s providence, we give support to all who believe that in our country Bosnia and Herzegovina there is life and future.

Let us recall the guiding, encouraging words of the great Pope, St. John Paul II., who said in Banja Luka fifteen years ago: “The future of this region depends on you. Do not look for a more comfortable life elsewhere; do not run away from your responsibilities – waiting for someone else to solve your difficulties, but prevent the evil with the strength of good.” In the spirit of the clear appeals of the last three popes, we call on each person to do everything in its place to build peace and justice. We encourage all to open their hearts for those who are weak, helpless, disempowered… At the same time, we are asking again from all those responsible for political decision-making to do all they can to restore the confidence of our fellow citizens in state institutions and finally to become a fully functional state.

The Popes have repeatedly emphasized that the state is obliged to protect the rights of every citizen, a member of every nation and a national minority, and not to limit those rights, to keep disempowering individuals and the whole people. We can not, on this occasion, not to point out the bitter fact, when it comes to the Croatian people and the Catholic Church in BiH, that in the RS entity, which makes almost half of the country, at the end of 2017, there were only 8.860 Catholics living in 69 parishes, about 5% of their pre-war number. Unfortunately, in some parts of BiH, there is a similar situation with the other two nations. Is it possible that those who have been exiled or those who remain in a certain part of BiH as less numerous are not belonging to anyone, even within their own people? Shouldn’t they, in this time of building the country and society, have the privileged place to partly overcome the grave injustice they have survived? In whose name, and in what’s name, especially those responsible, have the right to punish those people and to keep them at the edge when it comes to any political right as well? Does one need everything, and others need nothing, and are they thinking of building a just society that way, and in the end have both God’s and human’s blessings?

Keeping this in mind, we encourage all policy-makers and political parties to build responsibility for common good in their programs and performances, thus overcoming their own, often narrow-minded interests. We remind, that our own history warns us that, in finding long-term constructive solutions, it is misleading to be guided by the desire for domination of one over the members of other peoples, ethnic or religious communities. We consider it necessary – taking into account all the richness of ethnic diversity – to justly resolve the issue of the Election Law, but not only in half of the country but throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a way that all three constituent peoples and every man are equal in every part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using existing experiences of complex democracies on the European continent, it is possible to create the structure of our state for every nation and its citizens, not just for members of one of the indigenous peoples, or traditional religious community, or one party. In finding the necessary positive solution for all the local peoples, we emphasize once more that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs more decisive and more effective assistance from the international politics, especially politicians from the countries that signed the peace agreement in Dayton in 1995.

Aware that essential social, political, legal and economic changes necessary for the future of our country do not only come within its political or national boundaries, we consider the apologies of many world power centres unfounded and their transfer of responsibility solely to a “domestic level”.

At the same time, we consider it extremely important that domestic politicians, especially in this election year 2018, responsibly use public space and abstain from anything that is inappropriate for public performance and be aware that they are invited to be an example for younger generations. We also call on media and media employees not to agree on the trends of rejection culture (as Pope Francis said) and the elements of death culture (as St. John Paul II said) but to promote awareness of openness to life and love toward their country and homeland.

In this sacred time of preparation for Easter, we invite all members of the Catholic Church in our country to thoroughly spiritual renew and re-discover the beauty of the evangelical message. We especially encourage priests, monks, nuns, faithful, and other pastoral associates, but also all of Christ’s believers to – everybody in their own place – give their own contribution in achievement of the heavenly kingdom of good and peace. Let us be open to all of our fellow citizens whom God, in his own providence, has sent to our lives so that we, as the children of one heavenly Father, live in harmony and build this land.

Msgr. Franjo Komarica
The bishop of Banja Luka and the president of the Justitia et Pax commision