ZAGREB — Pope Benedict XVI warned Saturday of challenges to Europe's Christian values and said staunchly Catholic Croatia could serve as an example to other EU nations threatened by individualism.
"In the face of the challenges posed by today's culture there is need for ... active dynamism aimed at promoting the fundamental moral values that underpin social living and the identity of the old Continent," Benedict XVI said at the start of a two-day visit to Croatia.
He added that the cultural heritage of Europe was threatened by "an individualism that gives rise to a vision of life without obligations and a constant search for 'private space'.
The pope told President Ivo Josipovic that Croatia, which marks its 20 years of independence this year and stands on the threshold of European Union membership, has formed part of Europe "from its earliest days".
"So may this beloved nation, in the strength of its rich tradition, help to steer the European Union towards a fuller appreciation of those spiritual and cultural treasures."
Speaking to Croatian intellectuals later Saturday, the pope warned that Europe was destined to collapse if conscience was not at the centre of ethics and politics.
"If, in keeping with the prevailing modern idea, conscience is reduced to the subjective field to which religion and morality have been banished, then the crisis of the West has no remedy and Europe is destined to collapse in on itself," Benedict XVI said.
"It is by forming consciences that the Church makes her most specific and valuable contribution to society," he added.
Croatia, where 90 percent of the 4.4 million population is Catholic, aspires to wrap up EU ascension talks within the coming weeks and join the 27-nation bloc in 2013.
According to a recent opinion poll, about 45 percent of Croatians are in favour of EU membership, while 42 percent are opposed, with nationalists warning the country could lose its identity.
Josipovic on Saturday recalled the Vatican's "key historical role" when it was among the first states to recognise Croatia in early 1992.
Oppressed and marginalised during the decades of communist rule after World War II, the Church regained its lost prominence in the 1990s when it was promoted by Croatia's then nationalist regime.
The Church was further strengthened during the 1991-95 war with rebel Serbs, mainly Orthodox Christians, who opposed Croatia's independence.
The pope concluded the first day of his visit with a prayer vigil with some 25,000 youngsters who gathered at the capital's main square.
They chanted "Pope We Love You!" and waved scarves in the white and yellow colours of the Vatican as the pontiff arrived at the square in his popemobile.
Speaking from a giant white stage, dominated by a symbol of a dove, the pope called on the youngsters not to be led astray by "lifestyles which regard appearances as more important than inner depth."
He urged them not to "yield to the temptation of putting all your trust in possessions ... while abandoning the search for the truth".
On Sunday the pope was to address a mass in the capital's hippodrome during which he is expected to defend family values.
The pope will also pray at the tomb of controversial Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, whose "real humanism" he praised on the plane to Croatia.
Stepinac, who headed Croatia's Catholic Church during World War II, was put on the road to sainthood by John Paul II in 1998.
The move caused controversy as critics claimed the cardinal did not stand up to the persecution of Serbs and Jews by the then pro-Nazi Ustasha regime.
After the war, communist Yugoslav authorities accused Stepinac of collaboration with the Ustasha government, which he denied, and sentenced him to 16 years in jail.
Benedict XVI, 84, has not been abroad since travelling to Spain in November.
The visit to Croatia is his 19th foreign trip since becoming pope in 2005.
source:google.com
