The example of Ivan” “” “

“Blessed are the pure in heart” (Mt 5:8): that’s the motto of the Pope’s forthcoming journey to Bosnia and Herzegovina on 22 June. It will be John Paul II’s second visit in the Balkan country, after that of 12 April 1997. During the visit, that will take him to Banja Luka, the Pope will beatify Ivan Merz (1896-1928), “a significant page in the recent ecclesial life of the Croatian people” and one that is inserted “in the long history of Christian witness in the territory of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia”. To the youth of Bosnia John Paul II will hand over the cross venerated on the altar of the celebration in commemoration of this new Blessed, “a youth of your land”, while exhorting them to be “witnesses of the beauty of Christian worship” and express “in their life what they have received in faith”. “Words of hope, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation”: The expectations of the Bosnian people, on the eve of the Pope’s visit to Banja Luka, are epitomised in these words of Msgr. Ivo Paaradzik, spokesman of the Bosnian Episcopal Conference. “We have a need for love and peace to continue the task of healing hearts and mending relations after the Balkan war – continues Paradzik –. Much has been done after the end of the war, various things have improved, but there’s still a lot to do. The Pope’s visit, after that to Sarajevo, city symbol of Bosnia, in April 1997, will give us the impetus to pursue our path along the road of reconciliation and forgiveness”. But these are not the only objectives that need to be pursued. “Bosnia – recalls the spokesman – must look to Europe and the process of enlargement. It must also encourage the return of many fellow-citizens who went into exile, for example, from Austria, Serbia and Croatia”. But there is another challenge that faces Bosnia and that concerns the Catholic Church in particular: “the falling numbers of the Catholic faithful, whose percentage today is just over 11%. We hope – he concludes – that the Pope’s visit will give renewed strength and hope to our faithful. The example of Ivan Merz, whom John Paul II will beatify, will represent a model to follow”. The venerable Servant of God Ivan Merz was born in Banja Luka on 16 December 1896. He went to school there. After a brief period in the Military Academy of Wiener Neustadt, he enrolled in the University of Vienna in 1915, with the aim of becoming a teacher. But he was then called up and spent most of 1917 and 1918 on the Italian front. After the war, he returned to Vienna to continue his studies (1919-1920), and later moved to Paris (1920-1922). The Servant of God won a reputation as the ‘apostle to the young’, first in the “League of Croatian Catholic Youth”, then in the “Croatian League of the Eagles”, with which he inaugurated the Croatian branch of Catholic Action (promoted by Pope Pius XI). He regarded the organization as a way of contributing to the formation of an “elite of apostles of holiness”. An important aspect of his mission was also liturgical renewal of which Merz was one of the first promoters in Croatia, anticipating by four decades the liturgical reforms of Vatican Council II. He died in Zagreb on 10 May 1928, at the age of 32. According to the figures of the statistical Handbook of the Catholic Church (referred to 31 December 2001), there are some 461,000 Catholics in Bosnia representing 11.3% of the population. They are divided between three ecclesiastical provinces and 282 parishes and two other pastoral centres. There are four bishops (as of 31 May 2003), 237 diocesan priests and 346 religious priests. There are 38 catechists. The Catholic Church in Bosnia runs 8 nursery schools (with 2016 pupils), 5 secondary schools (with 1520 students), 1 rest home, 1 orphanage and 5 special centres for education and social rehabilitation.