Pope Francis Visits Sarajevo

SARAJEVO – Pope Francis urged Bosnians to seek lasting ethnic and religious harmony on Saturday, 20 years after the former Yugoslav republic emerged from war, saying even the deepest wounds can be healed.

Pope Francis arrives to celebrate a Holy Mass at the Olympic Stadium in Sarajevo on June 6. – Photo: Max Rossi / Reuters

The bells of churches rang out on the pope’s arrival at the airport of Sarajevo, once a symbol of the ethnic and religious diversity of socialist Yugoslavia.
Underscoring the security concerns for the pope, three military helicopters with doors open and sharpshooters at the ready circled low over the tarmac as his plane landed.
Last month a Muslim gunman attacked a police station in eastern Bosnia, killing one police officer and wounding two before he was shot dead.
At the airport, the pope shook hands with each of some 150 children dressed in traditional costumes of all ethnic groups.
The pope told reporters on his plane he was making the trip to pay tribute to those who had suffered from the 1992-1995 war that killed 100,000 people.
“Now it (Sarajevo) is on a beautiful path of peace. I am making this trip to talk about this,” he said.
The country remains hamstrung by the legacy of the conflict, divided along ethnic and religious lines and trailing its ex-Yugoslav peers on the road to Western integration.
Francis, making the third visit by a pope to Bosnia, arrived days after the entry into force of a landmark EU agreement on closer ties with Bosnia, part of a new Western initiative to encourage political and economic change.