Tens of thousands of Croatians swarm Marian shrines and churches throughout the country on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on Thursday, which is also a national holiday in Croatia.
Top Catholic Church dignitaries are saying masses in major Marian shrines, including, Marija Bistrica, Sinj, Aljmas, Ilaca, Trsat in Rijeka, Split and Makarska.
The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic, called on pilgrims, who on Thursday gathered in the Marian shrine in Marija Bistrica, to preserve faith and family, namely the marriage union between a man and a woman as a guarantee of the survival of the Croatian people as well as a happy life of every individual.
Split-Makarska Archbishop Marin Barisic said during his sermon in the southern Croatian town of Sinj, where tens of thousands of believers flocked to celebrate the Assumption, that the faithful must be responsible on all social fronts, congratulating a Knin midwife for refusing to participate in the deliberate killing of an unborn child through abortion.
Midwife Jaga Stojic, who was ordered to prepare her instruments and participate in the deliberate termination of a pregnancy in the Knin hospital in June and was sacked after refusing, was also mentioned in the sermon delivered by Djakovo-Osijek Archbishop Djuro Hranic. Archbishop Hranic, who served Holly Mass in the Marian shrine of Aljmas, east Croatia, said that Catholics today once again discovered the joy of faith, adding that the suffering of midwife Jaga Stojic showed that every generation and every person had a role in the fight between good and evil.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.
Thousands of pilgrims crowded into numerous Marian shrines throughout Croatia today to observe the Assumption of Mary.
