Pope calls Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to unity

Published: 2006-02-24

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to strengthening a spirit of unity, mercy, understanding and forgiveness in their country. The pope told the four bishops from Bosnia-Herzegovina who were on their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican that he understood their work was difficult in a nation still recovering from its brutal ethnic-based war. "Certainly the difficulties are numerous, but the faith in divine providence on your part and on the part of your priests and faithful is great," he said in his Feb. 24 address. The pope said, "After these sad years of the recent war, you today, as workers for peace, are called to strengthen communion and spread mercy, understanding and forgiveness in the name of Christ," both among all Christians and the whole of Bosnian society. A Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims was triggered after the mostly Muslim Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. A NATO-led military campaign and subsequent peace deal ended the violence among Serbs, Muslims and Croats in 1995, but more than 200,000 Muslims had been killed.

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