“The Pope is the man whom contemporary society needs”, declared the Serb Orthodox Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubjana, Jovan Pavlovic, in an interview with the Croatian daily Novi List, published in Rijeka, and also carried by the Croatian Catholic press agency IKA. “The Pope said the Metropolitan has succeeded in what no one else had succeeded in doing before: meeting so many leaders of different and opposing ideologies”. His commitment for peace “is for us a challenge to preserve Christian values in contemporary society”. With regard to the ecumenical dialogue in the region, Pavlovic stressed the need to “support” it since “the two Churches, Orthodox and Catholic, are very close in terms of dogmatic teaching and thus have the chance of overcoming the difficulties and achieving full communion, which does not consist just in gestures”. “Current relations between our Churches are good he concluded and no danger would be posed to us or to Serbian national interests if the Pope were to visit Belgrade and Serbia”. The Pope is due to visit Croatia from 5 to 9 June.
