The Fifth Croatian Diaspora Congress takes place in Mostar

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by Srecko Mavrek

The Fifth Croatian Diaspora Congress (HIK) – CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES OF UNITY, is being held from June 30 to July 3 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Mostar.

The congress started on Thursday with a solemn holy mass in the Cathedral of Mary. Mother of the Church and continued with a cultural evening in the Croatian Home of Herceg Stjepan Kosac.

The opening ceremony was held yesterday, where the organizers, partners, and officials from political life of BiH and Croatia had welcome speeches.

Among others, speakers were Marin Sopta, PhD., the president of the Program Committee of the Croatian Immigration Congress, Petar Palic, bishop mostarsko-duvanjski and apostolic administrator of trebinjsko-mrkanski, Zoran Tomic, PhD, rector of the University of Mostar, and Dragan Covic, PhD, the President of the Croatian National Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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After the introductory speeches and the opening ceremony, there was a plenary lecture moderated by Dr. Marina Sopta in which Damir Zoric, PhD, from the Croatian Association of Employers presented on the subject Economy and Croatian identity, Jasna Horvat, PhD, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Economics, University of J.J. Strossmayer in Osijek on the topic of Cultural capital – the economic life of the Glagolitic language, and Tomo Vuksic, PhD, the archbishop of Vrhbosna, on the topic Current moment of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Msgr. Vuksic presented the statistical demographic data of the number of Croats in BiH in the last few years. As a part of the congress, an Economic Forum was held.

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A two-day working part of the congress with numerous interesting panels and promotions will end with all the HIK participants visiting Medjugorje on Sunday.