date: 25.02.2017.
Information Centre “Mir” Medjugorje and Parish Office Medjugorje organised on Friday, February 24, presentation of book “100 most important Croatian men and women”, of the author Fr. Simun Sito Coric, who is a missionary in Switzerland, a writer, the university professor and music author. The purpose of this book is to give insight into the question of the most important Croatian men and women in the course of our history.
Along with the author, his guests were Bishop Emeritus of Gospic and Senj Mons. Mile Bogovic and the professor Ante Bezen. The academician Dubravko Jelcic was to be his guest, but due to health issues, he was unable to attend this event. Fr. Marinko Sakota, parish priest of Medjugorje, greeted all present at the very beginning of that evening.
This is what the author, Fr. Simun, himself, said about this book: “In the foreword I wrote that I suggest to everyone to make their own list of 100 Croatian men and women. It would become something addictive for you, it will make you to work more and more on that. It is interesting that those people are very inspiring for this time today, each one of them has non-passing value in his/her own spectrum of activity. It is noticeable that all of them were quiet influential abroad too. I noticed that only at the very end, each one of those people either worked or lived abroad. We are truly nation of immigrants. There is one other thing we can notice there – as nation, we were always opened for those who were coming to us but who were members of other nations. They all accepted Croatia as their homeland and sometimes that would take place within the first generation of immigrants.“
Professor Bezen spoke about all those for whom this book is intended, where our Croatian national history is so reflected: “This book is for all those interested in the culture, in the past and in the presence, who treasure values of our history that preserved our people and enabled us to have our own country at the end.“
Croatian history has been tightly connected to the Catholic Church for fourteen centuries and Christian elements are imbued all the time. Mons. Mile Bogovic said about that matter: “Fr. Sito started to write so he would give better and more beautiful picture about our history. He did what Anto Bakovic did when he wrote his Croatian Martyrology. He did what I planned to do when I got the idea to build the church of the Croatian martyrs. There were so many wonderful, amazing people who never received respect due to the political circumstances! We can see that many things that guided us began to vanish. We need to preserve Croatian history, so it would be presented in the way it truly was!“
Also, they mentioned how Fr. Didak Buntic, the person who inspired so many, was not at the list given in this book. When asked why that was the case, the author responded how Fr. Didak was to be there initially, but taking into the consideration representation of all periods and different social fields, he was not part of the final list at the end. However, Fr. Sito continued to work on discovering many unknown details from the life of this great priest. Fr. Sito presented to the audience some songs that will be part of the musical about Fr. Didak Buntic. He performed the part when Fr. Didak sang to the children while he gave them certificates in the Croatian school in 1912. This was the premiere performance of that song.
The musical part of the evening was enriched with the singing of the vocal group Bratovština from the parish Gorica-Sovići. (photos)
