Čuturić for Patria: Four Catholic believers live in Goražde, we are trying to build a votive church

(Patria) - Currently, four Catholics who practice their faith live in Goražde, and I am pessimistic about the growth in the number of believers, because people are leaving even from areas where economic conditions are not so bad, said Željko Čuturić, parish priest of the Goražde Parish, for Patria.

Commenting on the possibility that Goražde might one day become something like Medjugorje is today, parish priest Čuturić says that this could approximately happen in some future.

"Cardinal Puljić is trying to build a votive church to the Drina Martyrs, apart from the monument. The project exists, two priests are negotiating with the Goražde municipality and a suitable location is being sought," adds Čuturić.

He states that one location was offered, but it was far from the monument and inaccessible, so they gave up on all that.

Parish priest Čuturić says that the remaining Catholics in Goražde pray in a chapel located in the basement of the Parish House.

The Drina Martyrs are nuns of the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Love, who were killed by Chetniks on December 15, 1941, on the banks of the Drina River in Goražde.

Killed were the superior Sister Jula Ivanišević (Croatian), Sister Berchmana Leidenix (Austrian), Sister Krizina Bojanc (Slovenian), Sister Antonija Fabjan (Slovenian), and Sister Bernadeta Banja (Croatian of Hungarian origin).

Pope Benedict XVI initiated the beatification process for the five nuns in 2011. Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree on the martyrdom of the Drina Martyrs on January 14. This paved the way for their beatification, on the same day he signed the decree on the beatification of John Paul II, which was held in Rome on May 1, 2011, with the presence of about two million pilgrims.

On September 24, 2011, at 11 a.m. in Sarajevo, the beatification of the Drina Martyrs took place in the Zetra Olympic Hall. The beatification was led by the papal envoy and prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Salesian Cardinal Angelo Amato.

Since then, interest among Catholic pilgrims in Goražde and visits to the monument erected in this city to the Drina Martyrs has been constantly growing.