Honest Pope Threatened by Balkan Criminal Enterprise

The head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, will receive the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, in the Vatican on April 26th at 10:30 AM. That news was supposed to be announced only after the meeting between the Pope and Dodik, but Patria released the information over the weekend, so the whole matter had to be revealed much earlier. In BiH, there is a belief that things go wrong when many people know about an event. Usually, something goes wrong. That's why Dodik's visit to the Pope was kept secret.

Why was Dodik's visit to the Vatican organized through the Apostolic Nuncio in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Archbishop Luigi Pezzuto, without the knowledge of the Catholic Church in BiH? Or did some church circles help a little to facilitate this visit, but then withdrew from this sensitive topic in the capricious Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference of BiH, the noble Monsignor Ivo Tomašević, explains reasonably that "what the meeting between Dodik and Pope Francis will bring to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and thus to the Catholics living there, is much more significant than the form of organizing this meeting." Tomašević hopes for the best, because the Pope, as he has shown countless times, always wants only the best for all peoples.

The esteemed Monsignor Tomašević is probably right. It is good that the Pope is talking to politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina. But, you will admit, before the meeting between the Pope and Dodik takes place, it is still important to define the starting positions of both sides: is Dodik going to the Vatican to get advice from the Pope on how to overcome the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina and move the country forward, or does Dodik need a meeting with the Holy Father to break the diplomatic blockade he currently has from Western countries. Dodik's diplomatic reach, due to the pro-Russian policy he advocates in BiH, currently only extends to Belgrade and Moscow. And to Mostar. Will Dodik leave the Pope's office spiritually enlightened, or will his separatist tendencies grow?

So, what should the Pope learn about Dodik before sitting down with him at the same table in the Vatican? Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, who killed or expelled about 140,000 Catholics from the territory of today's Republika Srpska, and who were convicted by the International Court in The Hague for genocide and war crimes in the nineties, are, for example, heroes to Dodik. This January, Dodik posthumously decorated Slavko Lisica, convicted of various crimes in Croatia!

Or, for example, when it comes to the migrant crisis, Pope Francis says: "Migrants and refugees must be helped." Milorad Dodik replies: "There will be no settlement for migrants in RS." Pope Francis says: "Migrants and refugees must be helped with concrete acts of solidarity." Milorad Dodik says: "There will be no settlement for migrants in RS, we want them to leave as soon as possible." Pope Francis says: "It is a sin if fear causes aversion to refugees." Milorad Dodik shakes his head, looking at the Pope in disbelief: "There are terrorists among the refugees."

Or, here is another example where the views on life of the honorable Pope Francis and Dodik have not met. During his visit to Sarajevo, Pope Francis said: "Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have special significance for the whole world." Milorad Dodik says: "Sarajevo did not attract me even before the war. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an impossible state and it will disintegrate."

During his visit to Sarajevo, Pope Francis said: "Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have special significance for the whole world. They show that different people can live together in cooperation." Dodik says about this: "They are pushing us to live with those with whom we could not live in Yugoslavia."

The Pope, it should be noted, has had bad experiences with BiH politicians before. When he visited Sarajevo in June 2015, Dodik's main ally, the president of HDZ BiH Dragan Čović, told reporters: "I'm going in an Audi A8 from the airport, the Pope is going in some Ford. What can I say about all that? It's something that should be a motive for us if we are involved in politics – that we can do politics in a different way." Six months later, while the impressions from the Pope's visit to the capital of BiH had not yet subsided, Čović ordered a luxury Audi, whose basic package costs more than 70,000 euros, at the expense of BiH taxpayers.

If the Pope is receiving Dodik with such a pedigree, and we suspect that the president of HDZ, the one from the previous paragraph, lobbied for this visit to the Vatican, who pretended to be modest in front of the Pope, but when the Holy Father left Sarajevo, "ordered a luxury Audi at the expense of BiH taxpayers, whose basic package costs more than 70,000 euros," there is no other conclusion than that the noble Pope is in danger of falling into the clutches of the Balkan organized criminal enterprise. Will the Pope melt Dodik's heart, or will Dodik deceive the well-meaning Argentine, who is willing to kiss the feet of Sudanese leaders just so they agree to peace and coexistence, we will know after April 26th, a little after 10:30 AM?