Catholics facing discrimination in Bosnia and Herzegovina

9th November 2021

The Catholic minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina are facing great difficulties and discrimination, according to a local Bishop.

Franjo Komarica of the diocese of Banja Luka told Aid to the church in Need (ACN) that the country is not a functioning constitutional state.

He said Catholics, who represent about 15% of the former Yugoslavian Republic, are “going under”. “We are going to wrack and ruin, there is simply no place we can call home.”

He said many Catholics have Croatian names and it can be very hard for them to get jobs in parts of the country, as it is clear by their name that they are both Catholic and Croatian (and not Muslim-Bosniak, or Orthodox Bosnian-Serb). He added that Catholics can live without much issue in West Herzegovina, but even there Catholics are leaving.

There are also difficulties for Catholic refugees who left the country during the 1990s as there are no funds to ease their return, even though millions have been allocated to displaced Serbs and returning Bosniaks.

Bishop Komarica also noted that in his diocese of Banja Luka, 95 per cent of the church buildings were destroyed or severely damaged during the war. He thanked charities such as ACN for doing so much for them to help them rebuild.