Many of the Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina have now left their country. In fact their numbers have halved since the last Bosnian war, which ended in 1995. Today there are only around 400,000 Catholic faithful left, accounting for barely 15% of the total population. Sadly, this wave of emigration continues today, and most of the people who fled the country during the war have not returned. Indeed, for Catholics in this country of Southeast Europe that was formerly a part of communist Yugoslavia, life is becoming ever more difficult.
Despite this, many families do find the courage to return to their home country, as long as Church life has been re-established in their home towns and villages. Hence, the priests play a key role in this situation.
And so there is an urgent need for more priests. At present there are 14 young men studying for the priesthood in the archdiocesan seminary in Sarajevo. For the Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina it is a massive challenge to fund the training of these seminarians – since almost all of these young men who feel the call to the priesthood are from the poorer rural families – as indeed are most of the Catholics in the country. Consequently the Archdiocese of Sarajevo has to cover all the costs of their training.
This was always a challenge, even in the past, but in recent years, as a result of the war in Ukraine, prices for energy and food especially have risen sharply, and the country now has one of the highest inflation rates in Europe. There are fears that prices will rise still further. ACN has been regularly supporting the training of seminarians in Bosnia and Herzegovina and so, once again, we plan to support the formation of these future priests, with a contribution of 12,600 Euros this year, so that no vocation may be lost for lack of financial means.