Pontiff Calls On All Bosnians to Practice ‘Mutual Forgiveness’

Treading into the volatile Balkans, where religion has repeatedly stoked bloodshed, Pope John Paul II on Sunday urged Bosnians of all faiths to forgive one another -- and he pointedly asked God to “have mercy” on Catholics who also committed atrocities.

The pope said Mass for an estimated 45,000 pilgrims, most of whom were imported from neighboring states or regions to this part of Bosnia controlled by Serbs.

Orthodox Christian Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats and predominantly Muslim Bosnians fought a brutal three-way war over independence from Yugoslavia that ended in 1995 with about 250,000 dead and nearly 2 million driven from their homes.

In the days leading up to the pope’s arrival Sunday morning in Banja Luka, the Bosnian Serbs’ capital, many Serbs protested and demanded he not be allowed to visit. “Pope, Go Home” leaflets were scattered about but removed by Sunday. Security by local police -- reinforced by NATO peacekeeping troops on foot and in helicopters -- was unusually tight. The sale of alcohol was banned.

“From this city, marked in the course of history by so much suffering and bloodshed, I ask almighty God to have mercy on the sins committed against humanity, human dignity and freedom, also by the children of the Catholic Church, and to foster in all the desire for mutual forgiveness,” the pope said in a homily delivered in the language spoken by Bosnians.

Under a yellow-and-white canopy shielding against the blazing summer sun, John Paul said that only a “climate of true reconciliation” can honor the memory of “so many innocent victims” and ensure their sacrifice not be in vain.

The site of the Mass -- a Franciscan monastery on a hilltop called Petricevac on the outskirts of Banja Luka -- stirs chilling memories for Serbs. In 1942, Miroslav Filipovic-Majstorovic, a Petricevac friar known to the Serbs as “Brother Satan,” is said to have led pro-Nazi, Catholic Croats in the massacre of a nearby village, where more than 2,000 Serbs, including women and children, were killed. Filipovic-Majstorovic was later defrocked.

In the more recent war, Serbs blew up the Petricevac monastery after having killed or expelled most Catholics and other non-Serbs from Banja Luka.

“I know the long ordeal which you have endured, the burden of suffering which is a daily part of your lives, the temptations to discouragement and resignation which you experience,” John Paul said in an earlier ceremony at Banja Luka’s airport, where he was greeted by Bosnia’s three-member presidency representing Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

“If society is to take on a truly human face,” he said, “it is necessary to rebuild man from within, healing wounds and achieving a genuine purification of memory through mutual forgiveness.”

This was the 83-year-old pope’s 101st foreign trip in a papacy of nearly 25 years. It was his second trip to Bosnia and second to the Balkans in as many weeks; he was in Croatia for five days earlier this month.

His main goal was to shore up the Catholic Church, especially in places like Bosnia where it is in danger of disappearing. In addition, by visiting the Balkans’ Catholics and then the Orthodox, John Paul hoped to promote a healing of the millennium-old schism between the western and eastern branches of Christianity.

But the Orthodox bishop of Banja Luka failed to attend the papal Mass, where Ivan Merz, a lay Bosnian Croat who dedicated his life to the church in the early 1900s, was beatified. And Serb residents of Banja Luka were not impressed by the pontiff’s plea for God’s forgiveness. It fell short of a true apology, many Serbs said.

“No Serb wanted the pope to visit Banja Luka,” complained Dusan Drobnjak, a 63-year-old retiree who like most Serbs stayed far away from Sunday’s events. “He is not here to visit us. If he wanted to be welcomed he should have said that my men had committed a terrible crime here and that I apologize for that crime. He didn’t do that....

“He is just trying to conquer more territory. This visit is a prelude for a new invasion to take more Serb land away.”

Another retiree, 63-year-old Jovo Marjanovic, seated on a bench on Banja Luka’s main pedestrian street, also suggested that the pontiff’s appearance had more to do with giving political help to local Croats than with ethnic reconciliation.

“It is good that he came and even better that he left,” Marjanovic said. “He didn’t come here to learn the lesson of Petricevac. He didn’t come to mourn the innocent [Serb] victims that were killed there. I hope God will make the Catholics experience what we have experienced in the past.”

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Times staff writer Wilkinson reported from Rome and special correspondent Cirjakovic from Banja Luka.