Faith and society

Macedonia: study day on “The Catholic Church throughout history”. Bishop Stoyanov, “ there is no future without memory”

Il vescovo Stoyanov

“The Catholic Church in Macedonia throughout history” – this is the title of the study day that was held in Skopje on Saturday, 10 November, organised by the Catholic Church in the Balkan country in collaboration with the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Sarajevo. Attending the event were the Archbishop of Sarajevo and Grand Chancellor of the University of the Bosnian capital, Card. Vinko Puljic; Mgr. Ratko Peric, Bishop of Mostar; and other prelates and university professors from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The study day attracted the interest of various Orthodox scholars such as Reverend Dejan Borisov from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Skopje and the former ambassador of Macedonia to the Holy See, Bartolomej Kajtasi. “It is the first event dedicated to the origins of the Christian faith in Macedonia”, said the bishop of Skopje, Mgr. Kiro Stojanov. “With no knowledge of history, the faithful have no memory of the past, are unable to appreciate the journey made so far and, unfortunately, have no future”. His hope is that a scientific conference on this very matter might be organised in the near future. Card. Puljic, for his part, recalled the various stages of the history of the Catholic Church in Macedonia that has been present in these lands since the 4th century, its first Archbishop Andrea Bogdani, and the persecutions during the Ottoman rule. “Sometimes, we feel overwhelmed by current challenges – he said -, but if we look back, we will realise that there have always been obstacles”.