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the video clip on The Vukovar Cross
On the initiative of Ratko Vince, director
of The World Center – The Miracle of the Croatian Naive Art,
fifteen Croatian Naive artists agreed to create fifteen paintings
on glass, representing the fifteen Stations of the Way of the
Cross and the calvary of the Croatian people during the Homeland
War, in order to gift their paintings, and this representation
of the Way of the Cross, in the form of a wooden cross, 3 metres
in height, to the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II on the occasion
of his second pastoral visit to Croatia.
On a Monday in 1998, the President
of the Republic of Croatian, President Dr Franjo Tuđman, invited
a group of well-known cultural workers to the Presidential Offices,
in order to decide what to gift the Pope on his visit to Zagreb.
Apart from the President, sitting at the table were Božo
Biškupić, the eminent sculptor Kruno Bošnjak, the reputable
painter, Prof. Josip Biffel, Dr Jure Radić, President of the Welcoming
Committee for the Pope, Ivan Lacković-Croata and Ratko Vince.
It was the President’s decision that it be called the „Vukovar
Cross”, and he also asked that the following be inscribed
on the pedestal of the Cross – To the Holy Father, John
Paul II as a token of our gratitude for all that he has accomplished.
The Croatian people.
The President decided that his personal gift to the Holy Father
would be a silver relief by Kruno Bošnjak and that the large portrait
of cardinal Alojzije Stepinac by Josip Biffel, which was expressive
of the pending event, that is the beautification of cardinal Stepinac,
should be placed in large format on the Zagreb Cathedral, while
the Cross, which we had all helped to realize, should be a gift
for the Pope from the entire Croatian nation.
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On the day of the arrival of the
Holy Father, John Paul II in Zagreb, the Vukovar Cross was displayed
in front of the Zagreb Cathedral next to the small stage at which
John Paul II was seated. All the papers and TV stations covered
this event. The Cross was then taken through Italy, as it was to
finally reach Rome. In Italy its value was estimated at 250,000
DEM. However, the Pope had another idea – one of the martyr
cities in Croatia should have the cross. On the initiative of the
apostolic delegate of the Holy See, monsignor Giulio Einauidi, and
Ratko Vince, Dubrovnik was chosen and the Dominican church in Dubrovnik.
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Present on the occasion
of the official donation were, the right reverend Giulio Einauidi,
the mayors of Vukovar and Dubrovnik, Miroslav Tuđman (on behalf
of his father, who had died in the meantime), father Frano Prcela,
the provincial of the Croatian Dominican Province, Dr Goran Granić,
President of the Commission for Relations with other Religious Communities,
Kristijan Raič, the prior of the Dominican monastery in Dubrovnik
and, last but not least, the director, Ratko Vince, and numerous
painters and artists. Since then the „Vukovar Cross”
has been laid to rest peacefully in Dubrovnik. |
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