Homeland War veterans from northern Croatia hold a pilgrimage in Lobor

The traditional pilgrimage of Homeland War veterans from northwestern Croatia was held in the town of Lobor on Sunday. After paying their respects at the monument to the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman in the center of the town, the veterans made a pilgrimage to the Church of Our Lady of the Mountains, where mass was celebrated.

One of the initiators of the veterans Pilgrimage to the Church of Our Lady of the Mountains, is Stjepan Adanić, who is a veteran of the Homeland War, former politician and himself a native of Lobor: "We made our pilgrimage here to pay homage to all those who gave their lives for Croatia. People who came from this region that was not as severely affected by the war, with the exception of Varaždin. They defended Croatian statehood throughout the country, not just in our region."

The special envoy of the Speaker of Croatian Parliament, Zoran Gregurović, noted that some wounds cannot be healed through traditional medicine: "A lot of what the veterans experienced can be resolved medically, but there are also things - internal pain and internal trauma - that can perhaps be best resolved in a spiritual way."

For Vlado Brodarac, a Homeland War veteran and a member of the “Mato Barić Association of Croatian Volunteers from Komarevo,” the important thing is to honor those who gave their lives for Croatian independence: "So long as our health serves us, we will come whenever we can to pray for all Croatian defenders, for all of our missing and killed in action."

Source: HRT