Mission in Croatia, August 2008

 

This is the third time I go to  mission in Croatia. I began in Zagreb presenting the book "Catholics and the impact of New Age", which was translated to Croatian language. This is the second of my books to be published by the catholic editorial Detecta, from Zagreb.

It is a for me a great honor to receive the blessing of Croatian bishops, who have opened the doors for me to preach in the churches, seminars, convents, monasteries, schools and catholic universities. The experience of the Croatian Catholic Church is very edifying for our faith. Its history of martyrdom during the Muslim Turk occupation, 50 years of communism, and a very recent war with the Russian Orthodox Serbians -who have started two world wars leaded by the York rite freemasonry-, not to mention the Balkans' ethnic cleansing.

We are dealing with a Catholic Church whose faith has been tested on the three fires and is standing on her feet, brave and proud as a clean bride, prepared to receive the Celestial Lamb. The blood of the martyrs can be felt and seen in the devotion carried in the eyes of young and old. It can be seen in the families that get together in the atriums to meticulously get ready to enter the temple of God. It can be observed in the beautiful reverence with which they behave in the presence of the Tabernacle and carry their souls to the Eucharist. It is the deep knowledge of the Sacraments.

I have learned very much from them and they have given me hope and comfort. I say comfort because of the sadness of passing through countries where the Catholic Church is in such state of irreverence and spiritual malnutrition that one almost asks the Holy Spirit for purification. But that would be the zeal of the apostles wanting fire to come down from heaven to eliminate those who didn't want to receive Jesus in that village. It is a zeal that has no charity. That's why it is better to receive the blessing of the faithful Church in order to bless the unfaithful one and achieve its conversion.

I went to the cities of Dubrovnik, Zadar, Split, Medugorje, Neum and three smaller villages. It was the second time I had the opportunity to visit Saint Simeon, the prophet who spoke about Jesus at the temple of Jerusalem. His body has been kept uncorrupted in that city for 1.800 years. Zadar is one the most ancient cities in the world.

The city of Neum was kept like an island between Herzegovina and Croatia, and the Muslim population from Bosnia has been systematically buying properties there. They pay women for every hour they walk on the streets of Neum wearing their veils, for the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina don't use the oriental outfits of the eastern ones. They are white people, all converted during the Turkish occupation. Their goal is to build a gigantic mosque. During my visit there, a big concert was held in the Catholic Church in order to fundraise and build a Catholic Cathedral. Plenty of money was collected, and the construction will be finished by the end of 2009. This will eliminate the possibility of the construction of the mosque in a central spot of the city. It is a true battle, and clearly a spiritual one, between two different forces.

Pray a lot for Croatia, which is being managed by the monster of consumption and materialism from the European community and by the proliferation of Muslims entering from the Middle East.

The great majority of Croatian churches have a Franciscan spirituality. Franciscan from Croatia are, in general, very spiritual and obedient to the Church in Rome, with the exception of some outbreaks of clerical liberalism, that only follows fables and pseudo-modern tendencies.

In general, I would say that Croatia is a Catholic country, privileged by its holiness.

I pray God to protect them and to continue guiding them through the path of obedience to Jesus. A country with such an intimate relationship with the Virgin Mary that it has made the American-made Christian sects to be embarrassed and not being able to develop roots in those lands.