The Croat community in the area covered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka were left to themselves in the hardest historical times and politicians and political parties that should have advocated their rights did not care about them at all, the outgoing bishop Franjo Komarica has stated.

This dignitary, who will soon be sent into retirement after being at the helm of this diocese for 35 years, says in an interview the FTV federal television in Bosnia and Herzegovina published on Wednesday, that the 48 parishes that make up the diocese, had 351 baptisms as against funerals of 694 parishioners in 2022.

1 in 4 parishioners of Banja Luka Diocese diocese live in RS

Currently, an estimated 24,000 Catholics live in this diocese, while before the war there were nearly 98,000 members.

According to the available data, most of those 24,000 faithful live in parishes on the territory of the Croat-Bosniak Federation, while slightly below 6,000 live in parishes on the territory of the RS.

Komarica said that these are consequences of the 1992-1995 brutal wartime persecutions but also because no one showed sincere concern for local Croats.

“We would not have been in this situation, had there been more assistance from those who were supposed to help us,” Komarica said in response to the anchorman's question whether the leading Bosnian Croat party HDZ BiH has done all it could to help the Banja Luka Diocese Croats.

Komarica will be succeeded by Reverend Zeljko Majic, who currently serves in the Diocese of Mostar.

Bishop-elect Majic waiting for the ordination ceremony

In early December, it was announced in the Vatican that the Holy Father had accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented by Bishop Komarica.

“The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Zeljko Majic, of the clergy of the diocese of Mostar-Duvno, as bishop of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Msgr. Majic, born in 1963, in Drinovci, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was ordained a priest for the diocese of Mostar-Duvno in 1988. In 1993 he was sent to Rome, to the Pontifical Lateran University, where in 1995 he obtained a licentiate in pastoral theology.

The date of the ordination of the Bishop-Elect is still to be determined.