Grabar-Kitarović regrets ban on Mass at Bleiburg

(Patria) - After the decision of the Catholic Church in Carinthia not to allow the celebration of a memorial Mass at the Bleiburg field this year, on Saturday Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said she cannot interfere in relations between church authorities, but as a Croat and Catholic believer she deeply regrets such a decision.

“The President of the Republic is convinced that the Croatian Bishops' Conference will find a solution so that Catholic believers can publicly commemorate the Bleiburg victims and the victims of the Way of the Cross with a Mass,” the statement said.

The Catholic Church in Carinthia rejected the request of the Croatian Bishops' Conference to hold a Mass at the Loibach field near Bleiburg because it considers this Mass to be politically instrumentalised.

In May 1945, the Yugoslav Army killed thousands of Ustasha soldiers, including civilians, near Bleiburg in the Austrian province of Carinthia, after the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) suffered defeat. The Croatian Church, as well as the entire political leadership of the HDZ, including the leaders of the HDZ in Bosnia and Herzegovina, commemorate this suffering every year. The Austrian police have so far repeatedly fined some participants of the gathering for displaying Ustasha symbols, which are banned in that country.