The Vatican and Croatia, long a Catholic stronghold in the Balkans, are at odds because of a dispute over a monastery.

Croatia’s justice minister, Drazen Bosnjakovic, obstructed a recent decision by the Vatican to sequester a monastery in Dajla city, Croatia, which falls under the Croatian Diocese of Porec and Pula.

The Vatican has expressed “astonishment” at the refusal by Croatian authorities to recognize the decision of Pope Benedict XVI. Rev. Federico Lombardi said a review of the dispute is “important to both Croatia and the Holy See,” the AP reported.

An unusual step

The Vatican and Croatia have been arguing over the monastery for two and one half years. The Benedictines of Italy were initially seeking $30 million in compensation for the property.

When negotiations faltered, Benedict took an unusual step by appointing Santos Abril y Castello as a special representative. Castello took over as local bishop of the Croatian diocese for just a few minutes — long enough to sign the document of agreement which also authorized payment of up to nine million dollars.

The local bishop, Ivan Milovan, was upset at the move, and expressed concern that such a large compensation could bankrupt the Croatian Diocese. Milovan appealed to the Croatian government to step in.

History of the monastery

The monastery was built in the 19^th century in a town on the Adriatic coast, in the region Istria, which at that time formed part of Italy’s empire. The property was given to the Benedictines of Praglia, Italy.

Italy lost the Istria region after World War II, when it was ceded to the communist government of Yugoslaviain 1948. During the 49-year communist rule many church properties, including the monastery, were nationalized. The monastery became a nursing home for the elderly.

After Croatia gained freedom and independence in 1991 the monastery was placed under the Croatian Diocese of Porec and Pula. The Vatican was among the first nations to recognize Croatia as a nation. Benedict also visited the country last May and supported Croatia’s bid to become part of the European Union.

Osimo Agreements

Croatian authorities do not believe they should have to make any payment on the monastery, citing the 1975 Osimo Agreements where compensation had already been paid to Italy for the monastery and several other properties in the Istria region. Further complicating the issue is the fact that a portion of the land connected to the monastery was sold and now hosts a golf course and a hotel.

The Vatican, in order to transfer the monastery back to the Italian Benedictines, annulled all past government decisions in relation to the property.

Croatia’s prime minister, Jadranka Kosor, cited the 1975 Osimo Agreements, and told the Macedonian Intl News Agency, “[For] us, this chapter is absolutely and definitively closed.”

Kosor said international agreements should not be violated, and called the decision of the Holy See an attempt to infringe on international law. Croatia is also concerned that the Vatican decision may pave the way to future, similar requests, concerning other properties in the territory which was once under Italian rule.

While Croatia is a strong Catholic nation, the populace has responded to the issue with strong nationalist sentiment. The country’s general elections will be held in December.

The Vatican has condemned the fact that the issue is gaining political color in what it views as “a strictly ecclesiastical question” that is being “manipulated … to make it look like a threat to Croatia,” MINA reported.

Last year, a similar dispute arose between the Vatican and the Czech government over the landmark St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. An agreement was reached where the property continues to fall under The Czech Republic’s ownership, but the Cathedral is jointly administered by the Vatican and the Czech governments.

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Statements by Pope Benedict XVI that were published in an Italian newspaper recently indicate that while the pope upholds the traditional church stand on the use of condoms, there are circumstances when a “moral choice” to use them can indicate a step towards responsibility.

The example cited by the pope is that of a male prostitute who is afflicted with aids. The prostitute may make a moral choice to use condoms so that his sexual partner is not infected, Time magazine said.

This does not mean that using the condom is accepted by the church, but that in a circumstance such as above, it is, on the part of the homosexual, “a first step in the direction of moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants,” according to Time magazine.

First Vatican exception, break with tradition

The pope’s statement implies that condom use can sometimes be justified, and The New York Times said it is “the first Vatican exception to a long-held policy condemning condom use,”

The publication specified that the pope saw condoms as a last resort in the example of the male prostitute, as opposed to using condoms as a means to prevent pregnancy.

The New York Times said that while Benedict states that condoms are not “a real or moral solution,” the publication notes that “for the first time, he opened the door for at least some more open debate on the issue.”

The Observer called the pope’s statement a “break with his traditional teaching.” Because he said condom use can be “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.”

“Benedict’s surprise comments will shock conservatives in the Catholic church, while finding favor with senior Vatican figures who are pushing for a new line on the issue as HIV ravages Africa,” The Observer reported.

Transcript excerpt

In 2009 the pope told reporters that HIV in Africa would be worsened rather than improved by distributing condoms. The actual excerpt in its entirety is shown in BBC News. Part of the transcript is as follows:

Pope Benedict: There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection.

That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

Peter Seewald: Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?

Pope Benedict: She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

Harsh issues

In the book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Sign of the Times, the pope responds to the harshest issues of his tumultuous papacy, including his controversial 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany which offended Muslims, his stand on the ordination of women priests, the sexual abuse scandal of minors by clergy, and others.

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Catholics came in full force at Saint Peter’s Square Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI amid sex clerical abuse scandals rocking the church, VOANews.com reported.

The people amassed in tens of thousands early in the morning, many carrying large banners declaring solidarity, as families and children shouted slogans of support.  The crowd was composed of   dozens of lay movements and voluntary associations who organized this meeting to back the pope, according to VOANews.com.

Such large crowds as this are often reserved for holiday Masses and canonizations, rather than for Pope Benedict’s brief weekly prayer.  However, the church was also marking the World Day for Social Communications, VOANews.com said.

The pope had just returned from Fatima, Portugal where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to three children.  In that trip the pope expressed once again the church stand in the belief that human life begins upon conception, and that marriage is indissoluble and should be between a man and a woman, according to Metroweekly.

The pope said these initiatives, along with others, form “..essential elements in the building of the civilization of love.  He added that it fits closely with “…the message of Our Lady which resounds in this place:  Penance, prayer and forgiveness aimed at the conversion of hearts,’ Metroweekly said.

The show of support also follows several actions the pope had done including meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse in Malta, accepting the resignation of several bishops, visiting the Shroud of Turin and now, visiting Fatima in Portugal.

The pope thanked the crowd for their warmth, trust and presence in such large numbers.  He said their strong showing reflected their closeness to the Church, the pope and priests, VOANews.com reported.

The pope also said the true enemy to combat is spiritual sin, which, he said, sometimes also infects members of the Church, VOANews.com reported.

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The recently announced plans by the Vatican to designate a papal envoy to head the Legionaries of Christ renders this powerful, conservative Catholic order directly under Vatican control.

The Vatican made this move after an eight-month inquiry by five Vatican investigators who reported directly back to Pope Benedict XVI about the double life of its late founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Associated Press reported.

The Vatican report said Maciel had been sexually assaulting minor seminarians and fathered at least three children from two different women—a daughter from what was described as a “stable relationship”, and two sons who are now grown, who admitted to being his children with another woman, according to CNN.

However, the Vatican hoped that by appointing a personal delegate to lead the order, they could help them “purify” what good still remains, and at the same time help them to undergo a “profound revision”, the AP said.

Maciel was born in Mexico in March 1920.  In January 1941 he founded the Legion of Christ, a powerful and wealthy order that spans 24 countries including Spain, Rome, Ireland, the United States, and several countries in South America and Central Europe.  Recently it had begun projects in Eastern Europe and the Philippines, according to CNN.

With a membership of over 800 priests and 2,500 seminarians, the Legion also has some 70,000 members in the Regnum Christi movement, which was also founded by Maciel. The Legion runs Catholic news outlets, charities, seminaries for boys, schools, and universities in Italy, Mexico and Spain, among others, The Seattle Times said.

In response to the Vatican announcement the Legionaries issued a statement on its website where they said that they “embrace his provisions with faith and obedience”, the AP said.

Critics and advocates of the victims are dissatisfied with the Vatican’s latest move.  They wanted the order to be dissolved.   Others felt the larger part of the Legion’s leadership should be taken out, noting that Macial could not have lived his double life without the knowledge of some of the order’s top leadership, the Seattle Times said.

The Vatican’s statement said, “Of this side of life, a great part of the Legionaries were in the dark — especially given the system of relationship built by P. Maciel, who very skillfully knew how to create alibis, obtain loyalty, trust and silence from those around him and strengthened his own role as charismatic founder,” the CNN reported.

The Vatican said that Macial “…created around him a defense mechanism that made him unassailable for a long period, making it difficult to know his true life.”

According to the AP, Maciel’s victims had tried in the 1990s to bring a canonical trial against him but were shut down.  The late Pope John Paul II had long championed the Legionaries for their orthodoxy and ability to bring in vocations and money.

In 2006, one year after Benedict became pope, the Vatican ordered Maciel to lead a “reserved life of penance and prayer,” and rendered him a priest in name only. He died in 2008 at age 87, the AP reported.

The Catholic church is also investigating complaints of abuse allegedly committed in Britain, Germany, Ireland and other countries, the CNN reported.

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Amid mounting extremist attacks, the Christians of northern Iraq unveiled recently a statue of Jesus modeled after the giant Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

Although it is only a 10th of the size of the 130-foot statue in Brazil, it has become a popular shrine for Christian believers in beleaguered Hamdaniya, northern Iraq’s largest Christian town.

The statue stands at Baghdeda’s check point No. 1 at the entrance to the town.

Najib Attallah, head of the checkpoint where the statue stands, said the idea came from his security guards.

“In the past we would set up the crib at Christmas, but the guards wanted to build a statue for Easter that would resemble Christ Redeemer in Brazil,” said Fr. Louis Kassab, chairman of the Committee for Religious Affairs.

With two checkpoint guards devoting 18 hours weekly, plus 20 other volunteers, the construction lasted about a month and a half.  The guards were Alaa Nasir Kithya and Amaar Anaya.  The project was funded by donations from believers, at a total cost of some 130 dollars.

Violence

Christians in the area are familiar with violence.  Bashar Jarjees Habash, the city’s coordinator of Christian affairs said the idea of building the statue was  “to send a message …that we want to live in peace with all….even those who fight and threaten them,” he told the AFP.

In February, Human Rights Watch called on Iraq’s government to do more to bolster security and protect Christians after a string of deadly attacks on the community ahead of last month’s elections.

Eight Christians were killed in and around Mosul within 10 days in February, and since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, there has been no letup in persecution for the nation’s 550,000 Christians, most of them Chaldeans.

Pope Benedict XVI condemned the violence against Iraqi Christians in his Easter message this month, and urged authorities to do more to protect the “vulnerable” minority.

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