In Bosnia-Herzegovina, despite the signing of the Dayton peace accords in 1995, the situation of the Catholic minority has deteriorated, while it is caught between the Orthodox and Muslims, neither the international community nor the Europe deigns to lift a finger.
In an interview with Aid to the Church in Distress (AED), Msgr. Franjo Komarica, Bishop of Banja Luka, reviews the situation in his country, which has not changed since the end of the war in Bosnia in 1995.
The bishop recently called his country “Absurdistan” or an impossible state. He explains: “It's not the fault of the locals, who haven't been living together here since yesterday. The international community, and in particular the Europeans, allowed a proxy war to be waged here from 1992 to 1995. Since the end of the war, Bosnia-Herzegovina has still been a provisional country, where the status quo prevails.”
Since the Dayton peace accords, supposed to end the war and establish a peaceful coexistence between the different ethnic groups in the region, an International High Representative has in fact held the highest political position in Bosnia-Herzegovina, explains the prelate. “But although, since 1995, this function has been occupied by its eighth incumbent, it has not transformed the country into a legal state,” he laments.
It should be remembered that Bosnia-Herzegovina is now a multi-ethnic federal state with three constituent peoples, Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats, and two entities: the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
However, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia is under the influence of the Russian Orthodox, while the Federation is under the influence of Turkey and therefore of the Islamic world. The predominantly Catholic Croats, meanwhile, are “dying out,” warns the Bishop of Banja Luka.
Catholics are persecuted on all levels, the prelate emphasizes: “politically, socially, and also economically. Often, Catholics run into problems because they have a Croatian name. It is also difficult for them to find work. There is still a part of the country, Western Herzegovina, where they can more or less live. But here too, Catholics prefer to emigrate.”
It is certain that in eastern Bosnia, where Islam reigns supreme, cohabitation is no longer possible.
Once again, Catholics seem to have paid the price for the 1995 peace accords: “the agreement stipulated that Bosnia-Herzegovina and the international community should provide political, legal and material support to those who wished to return to their country. This was not the case for the Croats,” said Archbishop Komarica, documents support him.
There is therefore no need to go to the Middle East to find persecuted Catholics, since they are already at our gates: “if there exists in Europe a Church in distress, it is ours. In my bishopric of Banja Luka, 95% of the ecclesiastical buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged during the war,” said the prelate resignedly, concluding the interview.
A situation all the more distressing since at the same time the European Community, blinded, is promoting the LGBT agenda, when it does not allow itself to be seduced by the sirens of a modern Islam, affirming with the Council of the Europe that “beauty is in diversity as freedom is in the hijab.”
