Have you ever met a man, a priest, a pilot, a ship captain, a humanist, a world traveler? In Globarica, between Maglaj and Žepče, Federalna TV found just such a man. Ivan Ravlić proves that anything is possible, when there is will. In a country full of diversity, it shows that one person can achieve everything and at the same time retain the most important qualities – humanity.
From his schooling in his native Derventa via Brač and Sarajevo until today, Ivan has mastered numerous skills and acquired titles – both technical and human.
“I distributed 35 wheelchairs, both electronic and ordinary, to the people,” Rev. Ivan Ravlić.
This is probably the only priest in the world who drives all types of motor vehicles, and has also completed training as a pilot. In addition, he points out, there is also the captain of the ship. But also a voluntary blood donor.
“It is said that one blood donation saves one man. According to that logic, I saved over a hundred people,” says Fr. Ravlić
Every four years he gathers his Ravlićs, and every year the priests of the Doboj and Dervent deaneries. He rarely visits the ruins of the family home where he lived with his parents and fifteen siblings.
Already as a boy, he says, he made the decision to devote his life to a priestly vocation.
“We went to Holy Mass every Sunday. We went to school, even on Saturdays. Dad was not understanding – on Sundays and at mass, and again the same mileage – 18 kilometers on foot, me, my sisters and brothers. And, if someone has that habit, and I had that deep habit – and I started,” recalls Fr. Ravlić.
The most fruitful period of priestly service was, by all accounts, the one in Sarajevo.
“While I was a parish priest in Novo Sarajevo, I imported one of the largest organs in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time. At the time, that organ was estimated with installation at 200,000 marks. They weigh about eight tons.”
He is the author of 13 books and an exhibition of sacred religious exhibits on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the space of the Collegium artisticum in Skenderija: “About 600 exhibits were in one place. That was in 2008. The exhibition lasted for a month.”
The faithful are also here with their priest. Christmas is a time of love, forgiveness, but also an invitation to those who decide.
“We have our politicians, statesmen. They say everything in the name of the people, but they think of themselves and their needs,” says Rev. Ravlić
“Let us not be like that, let us be good people and accept each other without looking at who is who,” says Erna Elčić, a member of the Parish of St. Leopold, Maglaj.
Ivan Ravlić is also a world traveler, from China and the Sahara to Australia and America. Even though in the eighth decade of his life, he says, he has no intention of ending his travels: “I haven’t been to Japan and I haven’t been to Canada.” I have the will to go there.”
