Bosnia's Archbishop Tomo Vuksic conveyed a message on the occasion of Christmas, calling for help to those struggling with hunger and those who were deprived of their rights.

“Every year, Christian believers prepare to solemnly celebrate Christmas with joy. It is a holiday that brings and spreads joy, which is why even those who do not recognise themselves as Christians often join Christians. The ways in which those celebrations are marked are often combined with long spiritual traditions, which keep all these customs from being forgotten and demand that the glory of Christmas be repeated,” said Vuksic, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vrhbosna and the Apostolic Administrator of the Military Ordinariate in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He used the opportunity to point at the unfavourable status of those struggling with hunger, thirst, of foreigners, migrants, the unemployed and other vulnerable groups of people.

“And whenever they knock on our door expressing their needs, we receive them and help them as much as we can, we also received Jesus and helped him. That is the teaching of Jesus. And vice versa, if, God forbid, we turn away people in need, we have sent a message to Jesus that there is no room for him in our shelter again,” he stressed.

Vuksic recalled of the fact that in Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, there are about 60 soup kitchens and similar institutions that offer help to these groups of population and that they feed as many as 17 thousand people, while at the same time, about 140 thousand tons of food are destroyed annually, which could make 280 million meals.

The Catholic Church leader in Bosnia and Herzegovina has recently announced that he would use the funds intended for the traditional Christmas reception as a donation to four Sarajevo soup kitchens, and that this practice will continue in the following years.