After 74 years, in settlement Krnjeuša near Bosanski Petrovac, the first Holy Mass was celebrated. This will be recorded as the unique historical event, at least when it comes to the concern of the Catholic Church in this region.
On Sunday, the 9th of August, the Bishop of Banja Luka, Franjo Komarica, held the Holy Mass together with the priest from Petrovac, don Davor Klečina, who is also the provost of the Krnjeuša parish.
Holy Mass took place outdoors on the devastated Catholic cemetery “At the Cross”, which represents the only visible trace of the existence of this parish that faded in the pogrom on the 9th and the 10th of August 1941, when the entire parish had been wiped out – both people and their properties, and the life has not returned there yet, as reported by the News agency of the Banja Luka diocese (TABB).
The reason for the commemoration in Krnjeuša was the 74th anniversary of the martyred death of the parish priest, Don Krešimir Barišić, and the massacre over more than 240 Croatian Catholics, who were residents of Krnjeuša.
Since after the massacre of Croats in the parish Krnjeuša and after burning the parish Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the 9th and 10th of August 1941, the Holy Mass according to Catholic rituals was not served in that place. After 74 years this was the first Mass held not only in Krnjeuša, but in the entire municipality of Bosanski Petrovac, since the parish of city of Petrovac died in the summer of 1941 as well.
The organizer of the commemoration on the cemetery of Krnjeuša, attended by around 60 believers, was the Banja Luka Diocese and the parish of St. Joseph of Drvar-Bosanski Petrovac. Besides local believers from Petrovac and Drvar, the group of believers from Bihać, Grahovo, Livno, and some of the parishes in the Republic of Croatia attended the Mass as well.
(Source: klix.ba)
