‘It is harder for Catholics to defend their basic rights’ in the European country, Cardinal Vinko Puljiæ says.
Up to 10,000 Catholics are leaving Bosnia-Herzegovina every year because of state discrimination against the religious minority, according to the country’s cardinal.
Cardinal VinkoPuljiæ, Archbishop of Vrhbosna, highlighted the alarming exodus of the faithful in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.
He told ACN that the on-going haemorrhaging was a legacy of the 1992-95 war that caused at least 250,000 of the faithful – around half the country’s Catholics – to become refugees.
The cardinal said: “During the war and in the immediate aftermath of the war most of the Catholics were expelled from their homes and there was a great deal of destruction and looting.
“After the war there was neither political nor financial support provided for an ongoing return of the refugees and expelled.”
