Roman Catholics and Christians of other denominations were celebrating Christmas across Croatia on Sunday.

The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic, led the Christmas Day Mass on Sunday, extending messages of peace and calling for restoring the bonds of mutual confidence, respect and solidarity in Croatian society and for assistance to Ukraine.

“Let us pray in particular for Ukraine which is bleeding every day. With our experience from the 1990s, it should not be difficult for us to understand the situation there and help as much as we can,” Bozanic said.

Among those attending were Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Tomo Medved, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlic Radman, and Minister of Science and Education Radovan Fuchs.

Addressing the congregation at Midnight Mass in Zagreb,  Bozanic called on the faithful to take responsibility for the present moment and said that “no one is excluded from Christmas because Christmas announces God’s love of man.”

“Bethlehem speaks of the concreteness of human life, of the importance of our present, because it is only in it that we are given to live. Every moment is important, but only the present moment is always important, and that’s why we should be responsible for the time given to us, as well as for our own body and for the space that we live in,” Bozanic said, wishing all the faithful a merry Christmas.

Christmas was also celebrated in Croatian Catholic communities in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro.