Pope Francis Visits Bosnia-Hercegovina Saturday June 06,2015

 

Pope Francis is due to arrive in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where about 100,000 people are expected to greet him.

In a message to the residents of Sarajevo earlier this week, Pope Francis wrote: "I come amongst you... to express my support for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, and above all to encourage peaceful cohabitation in your country."

It is 18 years since Pope John Paul II travelled to Sarajevo during a severe snowstorm in 1997. A monument was erected in his honour in 2014.

Pope Francis waves as he boards a plane at Fiumicino Airport in Rome June 6, 2015. Pope Francis who is making a one-day visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, will call for lasting reconciliation in the country that remains ethnically and religiously fractured 20 years after the end of a civil war.

Pope Francis's visit to the capital Sarajevo is aimed at prompting peace and reconciliation across the country.
Pope Francis will hold a Mass at a football stadium and also meet members of the Muslim, Orthodox Christian and Jewish communities.

Bosnia remains divided along religious and ethnic lines, 20 years after its civil war. The war between Christian Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosniaks in the early 90s resulted in deep ethnic divisions.

Cardinal Vinko Puljic urged people of all faiths to "keep their ears and hearts open for the pope's message"

Preparing for the visit, Bosnians of all faiths are showing a rare unity in a country plagued by political and ethnic tensions nearly 20 years after the end of its 1992-95 war that claimed over 100,000 lives.

While the pontiff's June 6 visit is the most eagerly awaited by Catholic Croats, the smallest group in the ethnically segmented state, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosniaks have also taken an active part in preparing a warm welcome for Francis

Mugs with Pope Francis's portrait are seen in a souvenir shop in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 4, 2015

 

 Magnets with Pope Francis's portraits are seen in a souvenir shop in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 4, 2015

In the central town of Zavidovici, Bosniak woodcarver Salim Hajderovac, a devout Muslim, surprised his Catholic neighbours by offering to make a chair for the pope. The local Catholic priest and parish gladly agreed to co-finance it.

"I can't tell you how much this means to me," he said, showing the imposing chair of walnut wood engraved with the papal coat-of-arms and emblems of Bosnian Catholic shrines.
"The carvings show the religion and the size shows the pope's great soul and heart," he said in his small workshop.

Pope Francis arrives at a packed Kosevo stadium

Pope Francis waves to the thousands who gathered to greet him on his one-day visit to Sarajevo

 

 

Inside the Sarajevo's city stadium, 65,000 people gather to cheer on Pope Francis while many more well-wishers line the streets

 

Pope Francis released doves as he urged Bosnia's Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics to put the 'deep wounds' of their past behind them and work together for a peaceful future.

Thousands of people take to the streets of the largely Muslim city of Sarajevo to greet the Pope

 

 

 

Pope Francis celebrates a Holy Mass at the stadium in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina