He arrived at the invitation of the bishop of Pakrac and Slavonia, Jovan. Among those who came to hear his sermon were the Roman Catholic Bishop of Požega, Antun Škovrčević, Serb National Council president Milorad Pupovac, Bosnian Presidency member Milorad Dodik, Banja Luka Mayor Draško Stanivuković, hundreds of believers from Croatia and the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska (RS), and Serbian journalists.
Porfirije quoted Serbian Orthodox theologian Justin Popović’s words that “people invented weapons to achieve peace” and that it was “superfluous to say how absurd that is.”
Ustasha “signed out” of nations
“In this place people showed how much they can alienate themselves from what was woven into them,” he said. Jasenovac was a WWII Ustasha death camp.
He also quoted St. Paul as saying that God “has made of one blood all nations,” adding that those who in Jasenovac committed “the most monstrous evils wrote signed out of every nation” and “signed in among non-humans.”
My country
Porforije also spoke of the “nice words, support and love” he felt while serving in Zagreb, which was why “I see that city and this country as mine.”
He arrived in Jasenovac after visiting the people of the Banija region, struck by a devastating earthquake in December.
I felt the need to tell them that we are there for them, although I know that they won’t be abandoned by the Croatian state, some of them by the Serbian state and Republika Srpska, he said.
Bishop Jovan told the press that RS would participate in the reconstruction of a Serb school in Jasenovac which would “become a research centre and a library.”
Dodik thanks Croatian authorities
Although the patriarch visited Banija yesterday, Dodik said it was “very important” that Porfirije’s first visit was to Jasenovac due to “the fact that Serb people were killed here and the truth was hidden for many decades.”
“Revealing that truth is the lasting everyday task of us all, as is the prayer for reconciliation, understanding and a peaceful coexistence of all here,” he said.
Dodik said RS would give €50,000 for the Jasenovac convent, and thanked “the Croatian authorities for supporting the reconstruction of buildings that are important to the Serb people.”
