Aid to the Church in Need: MONTENEGRO'S DIASPORA CHURCH - ENSHRINED IN THE HEARTS OF HER PEOPLE

MONTENEGRO'S DIASPORA CHURCH - ENSHRINED IN THE HEARTS OF HER PEOPLE

Posted by Press Release on 5/11/2002, 7:41 am
Message modified by board administrator 6/11/2002, 11:05 am

PRESS RELEASE
MONTENEGRO'S DIASPORA CHURCH - ENSHRINED IN THE HEARTS OF HER PEOPLE
Although it only makes up around 4 per cent of the total population of around 680,000 inhabitants, the Catholic Church in Montenegro lives in the hearts of its faithful and is today experiencing something of a new dawn, following decades of oppression. This was the substance of the message given to representatives of the International Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need during a recent visit to the country by the two Montenegran bishops of Kotor and Bar. The archdiocese of Bar is the oldest diocese in the Balkans and covers around 75 per cent of the territory of today's Montenegro. The Catholic faithful here are overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians, among whom there still endures the great traditional sense of family solidarity. Given the present extremely critical social situation - according to some estimates unemployment stands at around 90 percent - this family solidarity is every bit as important as the support that many families receive from their relatives living abroad. The widespread poverty in Montenegro contrasts, however, with a great "riches in nature, culture and spirituality", to quote the words of Archbishop Zef Gashi of Bar. Both the archdiocese of Bar and also the diocese of Kotor, whose Catholics are mainly Croats, still suffer to this day - in the year 2002 - from the consequences of the catastrophic earthquake of 1979, during which numerous churches were destroyed or severely damaged. Both Archbishop Gashi and Bishop Ilija Janjic of the diocese of Kotor regard the building and rebuilding of churches and Church structures in their dioceses as of the highest priority. Aid to the Church in Need will provide financial assistance for these construction projects.

For further information please contact
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Phone/Fax 02 9679-1929
e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org
Internet: www.aidtochurch.org

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