ZAGREB, 5 Sept, 2021 - A traditional annual pilgrimage organised under the auspice of the Croatian parliament to the Catholic shrine in the town of Ludbreg was held on Sunday, with the Bishop of Zrenjanin, Laszlo Nemet, leading the service that was attended by a few thousand believers.

During the sermon, the bishop said in his message to parliamentary deputies who attended the mass and this votive pilgrimage, that both the present and the future of the country was their responsibility.

In reference to 1739 when plague had spread in the region, which prompted the then Croatian parliament to keep its vow to protect the nation from plague and therefore had a chapel built in Ludbreg and the present-day COVID-19 pandemic, the bishop said that there were also many challenges today such as COVID-19  disease, unemployment, the departure of young people from Croatia. And also there are many positive things, the bishop said, underscoring the positive vibrations among the faithful.

Several thousand pilgrims today flocked the northern town of Ludbreg that houses a unique Eucharistic shrine in Croatia, founded by a papal bull in 1513.

In attendance at today's rites was Deputy Parliament Speaker Željko Reiner, who among other things, called for vaccination of citizens against coronavirus "as the sole rational, efficient and civilisational achievement in the fight against contagious diseases."

He recalled that Pope Francis had also urged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

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