Srakic, the president of the Croatian Catholic Bishops' Conference, again criticised the adoption of the said legislation by the national parliament on 13 July.

"Freedom as a new religion cannot help but can only make things more difficult for the man who ignores the fact that the human being cannot play the role of God, regardless of the development of science and progress," said the dignitary, reiterating the position of the Church that abortion is a crime.

Top dignitaries said masses in major Marian shrines, including Marija Bistrica, Sinj, Aljmas, Ilaca, Trsat in Rijeka, Split, Skabrnja and Makarska, where thousands of pilgrims have been flocking to for several days of celebrations of the Assumption of Mary.

During his sermon in the national Marian shrine in Marija Bistrica, Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanic called for abiding by the "proven models of religious and national existence".

He said that the country's legislation and the state institutions must serve the interests of the families based on marriage and they must respect the right of parents to bring up their children in accordance with their beliefs.

Split-Makarska Archbishop Marin Barisic said during his sermon in Sinj that everything which was technically feasible was not necessarily also ethical, directing his criticism against the new law on medically assisted insemination.

"It is dangerous to proclaim one's wishes that are in contravention with nature and the Biblical tenets as someone's rights," he said.

Tens of thousands of Croatians swarm Marian shrines and churches throughout the country on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary every year. The Roman Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary, "having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.