Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bishops’ Conference, Year of the Word of God starting on 30 September

The Year of the Word of God for the Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina will begin on 30 September. As the Bishops’ Conference explains in a “message”, this year marks the 1600th anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome (Stridon 347 - Bethlehem 420), “translator and interpreter of the Sacred Scripture”. The place that gave birth to this Doctor of the Church, according to some scholars, would be in the area of Grahovsko Polje, in today’s Bosnia. “For us, however”, the Bishops write, “no matter where Stridon was”, this anniversary “is a timely opportunity for the Church to spread, read and promote with even more zeal, in its pastoral care, God’s message in Scripture”. The letter explains the importance of this figure and invites all Church members in Bosnia and Herzegovina to “dedicate themselves, even more during the Year of the Word of God, to reading, studying, disseminating and contemplating Scriptures”. The idea is to “organise catecheses and other forms of biblical teaching, particularly aimed at parish and religious communities”. According to the letter, “it would be very helpful from a pastoral point of view to have a copy of the Bible, or at least the New Testament, in every family, so that sacred texts could be read in the family circle”. On 30 September, two celebrations will be held in the parishes of Bosansko Grahovo and of Skopaljska Gračanica, of which Saint Jerome is the patron saint, “in compliance with the regulations of the competent Church and state authorities on the pandemic”.Valentina Bombelli