BELGRADE GETS SALESIAN ARCHBISHOP
Appointment Comes Hours Before Milosevic´s
Arrest
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, APR. 1, 2001 (Zenit.org).- A few hours
before former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested, John Paul
II appointed a new archbishop for Belgrade.
The papal decision comes a
few months after Archbishop Franc Perko, 72, resigned for health reasons. He was
substituted by Coadjutor Bishop Stanislaw Hocevar, who worked closely with
Archbishop Perko at a critical time in the country's history.
Archbishop
Hocevar, 56, a Slovak Salesian, told the Adn-Kronos agency that he regards
himself, and wishes to be regarded, "as part of the Serbian
people."
Interviewed at midday Saturday, after his appointment became
public, the new archbishop stressed that it is "important to continue in the
path of justice, as President Voislav Kostunica has been doing for some time,
especially by instituting a special commission to identify the roots,
responsibilities and war crimes in the
Balkans."
He added: "I think it
is an important sign for the people, for all of us, that the chief of state
together with the democratically elected government, is addressing the issues in
order to render justice to those responsible for 10 years of
horrors."
"To face the historical truth, to make the one who has caused
so much evil face his responsibilities, is the only way to make progress on the
path to the economic and social reconstruction of the country, Archbishop
Hocevar clarified.
Referring to President Kostunica, the archbishop said
that he is "very open and available to the country's other minority Christian
communities. He is actively supporting the pastoral work of the historical
churches, not that of sects, but of the churches." In this way, he guarantees
the collaboration of the Catholic Church
and the other Christian communities
in the country's reconstruction.
Milosevic was arrested -- collaborators
say he surrendered -- at 4:30 a.m. today without violence, if one discounts his
daughter Marija's five warning shots.
According to Dusan Mihajlovic, a
former Milosevic collaborator, at present the Serbian Interior Minister, the
former Yugoslavian leader was taken before the regulatory magistrate, and
imprisoned since the court is closed
today.
