Faith Matters

Twenty years after the outbreak of the Bosnian War for independence and 17 years after it ended, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the poorest countries in Europe: a transit route for drug trafficking to western Europe with a great gulf between rich and poor. The Swiss Franciscan nun, Sr. Magdalena Schildknecht, has lived in the capital, Sarajevo, for the past 12 years. With support from the German Catholic charity, "Initiative Renovabis", she runs a drug prevention program.  Before the war, most people in this city of Muslim minarets, Catholic spires and Orthodox domes lived together peacefully, and didn’t know which of their neighbours were Serb, Croat or Bosniak.

Religion had been discouraged in Communist Yugoslavia and hardly any churches were built after World War II. Today, Sarajevo is a predominantly Muslim city with a large Catholic minority and a smaller Jewish one – a result of the Serbian assault on Sarajevo. (The city was eventually divided in 1995 according to the terms of a peace treaty.) Most Serbs left – to settle on the other side of the valley in what is now East Sarajevo. But they are still a factor – like the churches, mosques and synagogues. And many Sarajevans now bear allegiance to a religious community, as wasn’t the case for 50 years. Their motivation is mainly political, and religious dialogue has a strong political dimension. All the faith communities are represented in the Interreligious Council of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Twice a year they send young theologians – Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim – to a conference organised by the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation. How do these young people relate to each other – twenty years after the Siege of Sarajevo, which was intended to put an end to coexistence?  Sr. Magdalena Schildknecht views work with the socially disadvantaged as “proclaiming the gospel – not in words but with deeds.” Drug prevention among school children and students in Sarajevo also involves learning to live together – in this “Jerusalem of the Balkans”.