By John L. Allen Jr.
Rijeka, Croatia

Just days after losing the first round of a high-stakes battle over the role of Christianity in the European Union, Pope John Paul II has begun a five-day visit to Croatia, using the trip in part as a platform to insist anew that Europe must not forget its Christian roots.

"The rich tradition of Croatia will surely contribute to strengthening the union as an administrative and territorial unit, and also as a cultural and spiritual reality," John Paul said during a June 5 welcoming ceremony.

In a 2001 census, 87.83 percent of Croatia's 4.4 million people declared themselves to be Catholic. That's an 11 percent increase from 1991, reflecting in part a strong tie between Catholicism and Croatian nationalism.

The Croatia swing, John Paul's 100th foreign trip, comes one week after a drafting commission working on a new constitution for the European Union released the proposed text of the preamble. Despite months of strong Vatican diplomatic pressure, the preamble makes no specific reference to Christianity.

The proposed text notes that Europe was nourished by "Hellenic and Roman civilizations," as well as "marked by the spiritual impulse that runs through it and whose traces are present in its patrimony, then by the philosophical currents of the Enlightenment."

On the catamaran that carried John Paul II and his entourage from the airport in Krk to the island of Rijeka, the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, challenged this formula.

"It seems to me that in between Greece and Rome and the Enlightenment, there were more than 1500 years of Christian history," Sodano told reporters.

Croatia's president, Stiepan Mesic, picked up on the Christian identity theme in his welcoming remarks.

"We are on the path towards association with the European Union," Mesic said. Croatia aspires to join the EU by 2007. He said that Croatia wants to join Europe "in all its diversity and richness … departing from its common sources and roots, one of which is Christianity."

France and the northern European nations have opposed references to Christianity on the grounds that Europe should be a pluralistic society without a privileged confession. The Vatican, however, insists that key European values, such as the value of the human person, rest on its Christian roots.

The draft preamble was prepared by a subcommittee of the commission working on the new constitution, and the full body will debate the preamble in coming days. The parliament of the European Union will take up the issue in the fall, so Vatican diplomats still have time to make their case.

The pope's trip will take him to four sites inside Croatia. The highlight is scheduled to come June 6, with the beatification of a 20th century Croatian Franciscan nun, Sr. Marija Petkovic, known for her concern for the poor.

One issue unlikely to surface in public, but that lies beneath the surface, is the question of Croatia's relationship with the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague, which is investigating events during the brutal war in the early 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Croatia's center-left government has pledged cooperation, but has drug its feet on handing over several indicted military officials, most famously General Janko Bobetko, the most senior Croat indicted for war crimes. That chapter closed with the death of Bobetko April 29, but several other men sought by the Hague remain at large.

Some Croatian priests and bishops have been vocal supporters of the military officials, seeing them as heroes in a war of national liberation. Bishop Ante Ivas of the southern town of Sibenik, for example, has criticized the government for "humiliating and dishonoring" the country's "defenders" by threatening to turn them over.

The Vatican, a staunch supporter of international law, has quietly tried to press the Croat bishops to soften their opposition to cooperation with the war crimes tribunal. Although John Paul is not expected to raise the issue publicly, it could be part of behind-closed-doors conversations.

In his public comments, the pope is expected to call simply for further healing of the wounds caused by the war.

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Read more reports posted from Croatia:

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