April 22, 2020 – The final chapter of Za Krizen 2020, as the Varbonj za Zagreb earthquake appeal reaches 100,000 kuna. A message from cross-bearer Matteo Bratanic.
As previously reported on TCN, the UNESCO-listed Za Krizen religious procession on Maundy Thursday was one of the few events to be allowed to take place in this corona era, albeit in strictly controlled circumstances (you can see the detailed TCN eye-witness account of the 9-hour procession).
Matteo Bratanic, the Vrbanj cross-bearer, his family and the people of the village of Vrbanj decided to donate all the proceeds from Za Krizen 2020, including a monetary value on all gifts received, to victims of the devastating earthquakes in Zagreb last month. As I wrote last week, Matteo’s father Toni, explained a little more about the Varbonj za Zagreb campaign (Varbonj is a dialect word for Vrbanj), as well as inviting people to contribute until last Sunday.
My name is Matteo Bratanic, this year’s Krizonosa from Vrbanj. To add on to the email my father sent you, below is the final numbers and thanks to everybody involved:
Thank you to everyone! The humanitarian action that we started on Palm Sunday was successfully completed. A total of 100,000.00 KN was collected. As you know, the donations could have been paid to the parish account, directly to the pastor, as a “lemozina” to the church and of course to Matteo himself who gave up all the monetary gifts received. On top of the collected contributions, the Bratanic family donated an amount to round the number up to 100,000.00 KN. 50,000.00 KN will be paid to the account opened by the government of the Republic of Croatia opened for the help of Zagreb.
The remaining 50,000.00 KN will be paid on the account of “Kuce sv. Terezije od Malog Isusa za nezbrinutu djecu” in Zagreb. Indeed, it is an institution led by the Carmelites of the divine heart of Jesus. They take care of children who don’t have proper parent care. As the earthquake significantly damaged their building in the center of Zagreb, they had to leave their premises until everything was renewed. And we decided to make our little contribution to the restoration of the same!
Thank you to all of you who participated in your applications, it doesn’t matter how much they are, more importantly that it was given from the heart. Most thanks to Matteo and the Bratanic family for the idea and proposal to start this action, and for participating in it. God bless all of you!
