Pope Francis Quoted Important Document from Croatian Bishops in 1995
October 5, 2020 – As Fratellanza umana reports, in his third encyclical "Fratelli tutti", published on October 4, 2020, Pope Francis quotes the most important and unfortunately forgotten document of the Croatian Bishops' Conference.
In an issue number 253 of his new encyclical named "Fratelli tutti" on fraternity and social friendship, Bishop Francis of Rome quotes the Letter of the Croatian Bishops' Conference on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, signed on May 1, 1995.
In addition to this document, Pope Francis quotes several other bishops' conferences elsewhere, which is not a novelty of this encyclical, but it is a novelty of his pontificate.
In any case, this is the first time that a bishop of Rome has quoted a Croatian Bishops' Conference's document in an encyclical. And he did not choose this 25-year-old document by chance, since the bishops in it ask very important moral questions for the believers and the entire Croatian society:
"It is not the main weightiness of the question in how to mourn the victims of one’s community and how to recognize the guilt of another community. Croats and Serbs, Catholics and Orthodox, Muslims and others are faced with a more difficult moral question: How to mourn the victims of another community, how to admit guilt in one's community? And then: How to atone for guilt, how to obtain the forgiveness of God and human, peace of conscience and reconciliation between people and nations? How to start a new age based on righteousness and truth?" reads the Letter of the Croatian Bishops' Conference on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, on May 1, 1995.
In this new encyclical "Fratelli tutti", Pope Francis cites an excerpt from the CBC's letter which precedes this one, and is also related to the attitude towards the victims of the "other side". Thus the 253rd issue of the Pope's encyclical reads:
"When there have been injustices on both sides, it must be recognized that they may not have been of equal weight or they are not comparable. Violence perpetrated by the state structures and powers is not on the same level as violence by individual groups. In any case, it cannot be expected that only the unjust sufferings of only one of the parties will be mentioned. As the bishops of Croatia have taught, 'we owe equal respect to every innocent victim. There can be no ethnic, confessional, religious, national, or political differences'.“
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Croatian Bishops Warn against Conspiracy Theories, False Rumours about COVID
ZAGREB, Sept 17, 2020 - The Iustitia et Pax Commission of the Croatian Catholic Bishops' Conference (HBK) said on Thursday that the general public had the right to know about decisions made by the authorities, however, disseminating conspiracy theories and negating one's own responsibility was unacceptable.
"Pope Francis has underlined in his speeches on several occasions that the experience of the (COVID-19) pandemic has shown us that no one can be saved alone." the Commission says in its statement on the topic of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and actions taken to curb it.
The Commission points out the importance of solidarity and brotherhood in these times.
The epidemic of coronavirus has raised many ethical and legal issues, and it is evident that some extraordinary measures imposed by countries for the sake of the protection of public health have restricted human rights.
However, those restricted rights are not absolute, and therefore the states can restrict them for the protection of some other rights.
Croatian bishops say that it obvious that the protection of public health is above the unlimitedness of freedoms and some other rights of individuals, and in this context, they quote the European Convention on Human Rights.
The bishops find the position of the Croatian Constitutional Court on the matter very important in the context of the further activities of the relevant authorities and recall that the Court has confirmed the fact that legal regulations define the boundaries of the ethical and legal responsibility of citizens.
The bishops call for public support for the work and dignity of the Croatian national COVID-19 crisis management team and of all workers in the healthcare system.
"Disseminating conspiracy theories and panic as well as ignoring one's own responsibility and neglecting the rights of others as well as ignoring the scientific knowledge and the obvious reality is unacceptable because it only creates havoc, which we do not need at all," the bishops say, calling on every individual to behave responsibly.
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