February 16, 1991—February 16, 2021
Fr. Ante Gabrić Auditorium
Dear Brothers and Sisters, doctors and medical personnel, present here and all those who are lovingly joining us via the media,
Some still remember an event that occurred thirty years ago today, on February 16, 1991, when a huge crowd could not fit into this Auditorium: the solemn and historical act of the founding of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society.
Today our number is small but brave. It is a staunch number. The reason is well known. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was severely damaged by the earthquake of last March and the number permitted here is limited due to the risk of coronavirus infection.
We have gathered today at Holy Mass to recognize and express our gratitude to our distinguished predecessors, and also to express congratulations for this feat, which is a source of pride to us. It truly was a feat at a time of sociopolitical upheavals, unrest, insecurity and the beginnings of the Croatian War of Independence.
Those who gathered here thirty years ago, like us today, were buoyed by faith and hope, love for the culture of life that comes from the Creator and the Lover of Life (Wis 11:26). Jesus has assured us: “I live and you will live” (Jn 14:19).
To honor the Hippocratic Oath and the Decalogue, you will bear witness to all those around you and safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of human life from conception to natural death. The culture of life, through the culture of prayer and the love of life, becomes a mission to serve life: Diakonia vitae.
It is to this mission that the Decalogue and Oath dedicate us, as we have confirmed by our enrollment in the Croatian Catholic Medical Society.
Every day, we confirm the greatness and unique sublimity of our vocation and mission with our lives, each in our own place, through prayer and the task of witness.
It is significant that this commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society is being held in an auditorium named for a great and tireless missionary of the culture of life in India – Fr. Ante Gabrić. Comparing his life to a candle, Fr. Ante Gabrić was fond of saying: “I won’t smoke [but] blaze and burn out.”
So it was with the friends of Jesus. Mary had only one answer: “May it be done to me according to your word! (Lk 1:38). May Our Lady, the Health of the Sick, protect us from infirmity and disease.
Proud and grateful for everything that Jesus wanted to do through us and for us, we pray with the three youths from the Book of Daniel: “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt him above all forever—for his mercy endures forever!” (Dn 3:57, 90).
All [you] deceased and living members of the CCMS, praise and exalt the Lord! Amen.
Most Rev. Pater Pozaić, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Zagreb
Former (First) Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society (CCMS)
http://www.hkld.hr/11-vijesti/915-misa-zahvalnica-za-30-obljetnicu-hkld-a
