SPC metropolitan:Pope should first visit Jasenovac
20/8/2012
NOVI SAD – Metropolitan Jovan of Zagreb, Ljubljana and the entire Italy stated on Sunday that before coming to Serbia, head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI should visit Jasenovac and honour the memory of the victims killed in the prison camp set up by the Nazi puppet state Croatia.
Metropolitan Jovan stated that the visit of the Pope to Serbia would be useful and that, if he were a politician, he would overcome all obstacles if the Pope’s visit could bring any good to Serbia.
In an interview for the Novi Sad-based daily Dnevnik, the metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) noted that he believes the Pope should honour the victims of Jasenovac before visiting Serbia, just as he did when he honoured the victims killed in Auschwitz before visiting Poland.
He added that he expected the visit of Cardinal Josip Bozanic to Jasenovac to be the preparation for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI during his stay in Croatia last week, but the Pope failed to make the visit at that point.
Metropolitan Jovan said that the potential attendance of the Pope at the celebration of the 700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan next year in Nis is an exceptionally complex issue, and not just because of the fact that in that case, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church would not appear at the ceremony.
If the Pope was to visit Nis, the celebration of the anniversary of the Edict of Milan would lose its importance and all other church dignitaries would practically be reduced to the state of the Pope’s trainbearers, the metropolitan believes.
