Bringing Reconciliation to the Balkans

MACEDONIA - The ancient town of Ohrid, in Macedonia near the Albanian border, has winding streets and alleys full of Christian treasures, like the ninth-century St. Sophia Cathedral. But after decades of religious suppression under Communism and the breakup of Yugoslavia, Ohrid’s Catholic community was down to 100 or so faithful when a Catholic pastoral center opened in 2003. “So much remarkable history, yet we had dwindled to a handful of elderly believers,” recalled Stjepan Kusan, S.J., who has served as the center’s director from the start. With the strong support of the Croatian Province of the Jesuits in Zagreb, the Archdiocese of Skopje, Macedonia, and Catholic foundations like Renovabis in Germany, Father Kusan set out to revive the community.

The center is credited with bringing about a Catholic spiritual and cultural revival as well as reconciliation between religious groups in the region. In the Balkans, where tension between faiths is far more common historically than ecumenical dialogue, it is rare to find the level of cooperation between religious groups that now exists in Ohrid. Relations between the town’s Catholic and Orthodox churches have been described as excellent by observers ranging from local police officers to teachers, the most cordial and cooperative since the civil war fought between the government and ethnic Albanian insurgents ended in June 2001.

“The hatred and distrust fomented by the Balkan wars means that we, the churches and clergy, must find new ways to be together, identifying common ground which benefits the spiritual and educational development of all our people,” Father Kusan said. “Reconciliation must be premised on concrete activities taken up together,” he said.

The Church of Sts. Benedict, Cyril and Methodius sits between two wings of the pastoral center. The center also houses the Jesuit Refugee Service office covering Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Programs to benefit young Balkan land mine victims are held there each summer. The center has also helped several local Orthodox priests get scholarships to study abroad and has started a marriage encounter program with a local Orthodox parish to help improve communication between husbands and wives. Muslim couples have joined the program as well.

For the last three years, the most popular programs offered by the collaborating parishes are language classes in Albanian, English, German, Turkish and even Vlach. Support for an unusual language like Vlach underscores the balance sought by the center’s leadership: encouraging ethnic identity while guarding against conflict. The Vlachs were nomadic shepherds living in compact communities in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey and Romania. They were the first ethnic group given cultural autonomy under the Ottoman Empire in 1905.

“We believe people should be able to keep their own language and culture,” Father Kusan said. “This allows freedom of expression and pride, without being separatist or aggressive.” More than 1,500 people have graduated from the courses since the program began. Approximately 65 percent of Macedonia’s population belongs to the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Muslims comprise 33 percent of Macedonians, while other Christians make up less than 1 percent of the population.

Avery Dulles Dead at 90

NEW YORK - Avery Dulles, a Jesuit theologian who was made a cardinal in 2001, died Dec. 12 at the Jesuit infirmary in the Bronx, New York. He was 90 years old. Cardinal Dulles was born Aug. 24, 1918, in Auburn, N.Y., the grandson of a Presbyterian minister. He entered the Catholic Church in 1941 while a student at Harvard University. He served in the Navy in World War II, then entered the Jesuits after his discharge in 1946. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1956.

Cardinal Dulles had been the Laurence J. McGinley professor of religion and society at Fordham University in New York since 1988. He also had taught at Woodstock College, now part of Georgetown University, from 1960 to 1974, and at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from 1974 to 1988. He had been a visiting professor at many Catholic, Protestant and secular colleges and universities.

The most famous of his 27 books on theology was his groundbreaking 1974 work Models of the Church. Past president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society, Cardinal Dulles served on the International Theological Commis-sion and also served as a consultant to the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.

Cardinal Dulles was the son of Janet Avery and former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who served under President Eisenhower. Dulles had two other relatives who served as U.S. secretary of state: his great-grandfather John W. Foster and his great-uncle Robert Lansing. The cardinal’s uncle, Allen W. Dulles, served as Director of Central Intelligence for Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

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