The Holy See's press office on Tuesday issued a statement in Croatian language on its web site regarding media reports about a dispute which began after Italian Benedictine monks from the Abbey of Praglia requested restitution of the Dajla monastery in the Porec diocese in Istria, saying that this was a church matter and that the Bishop of Porec and Pula, Ivan Milovan, had refused to sign an agreement on property restitution.
The Holy See said it was saddened by the fact that the issue was being instrumentalised and presented as a political one, as if there was a plan to harm Croatia. Quote the contrary, the decision of the Holy See (on the matter) is aimed exclusively at restoring justice in the Church, albeit only through partial compensation, reads the statement.
According to the statement, the decision on property restitution was made in line with discussions the Holy See had started back in 2004 with the Porec diocese and the Benedictine monastery in Praglia. On 21 November 2008, the Holy Father established a commission to deal with the matter. After scrupulously searching for an agreement between the parties concerned and after some unilateral moves on the part of the church authorities of Porec and Pula, the commission unanimously adopted conclusions that were submitted to the Pope in December 2010, and he explicitly approved them.
"Under that decision, the ownership of the property in question, still held by the diocese of Pula and Porec, was to be transferred to the Croatian legal entity Abbazia d.o.o. whose sole owner is the Abbey of Praglia, which would restore, to the extent possible today, the situation as determined in the will of the original donor, which was disregarded for many years due to historical circumstances. Also, the Porec diocese was requested to pay the Abbey of Praglia financial compensation in return for the property which was already appropriated by the diocese or which simply cannot be restored. The amount of the compensation should be considered as a lump sum because the value of the property already appropriated by the diocese is much higher," said the statement.
After he initially agreed to negotiate with the Italian Benedictines with the aim of achieving an inter-Church settlement of the dispute, the bishop of Porec and Pula unfortunately changed his position, refusing to sign an agreement giving the said decision civil effect. Therefore, the Holy Father on 6 July 2011 appointed Msgr. Santos Abril y Castelló as an 'ad actum' commissioner replacing the local church authority in the matter, so that the dispute could finally be settled, the Holy See said in the statement.
According to Croatian media reports, the Pope briefly suspended Porec Bishop Milovan, so that a Spanish bishop could sign an agreement regulating relations between the Dajla parish and the Italian Benedictine Abbey of Praglia, which demands property restitution or financial compensation, estimated at millions of euros.
