Strasbourg, 22 October 2025
Member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the European Parliament working group on interreligious dialogue, Željana Zovko, will take part in a mass in the Cathedral of Strasbourg to celebrate the Jubilee Year 2025. On this occasion, she will read the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans. The Holy Father has placed this Jubilee Year under the sign of hope: “Is it too much to dream that weapons may fall silent and cease to bring death and destruction? The call for peace concerns everyone and demands the pursuit of concrete initiatives. Diplomacy must continue to courageously and creatively build spaces for negotiation aimed at lasting peace.” The Pope encourages governments to take initiatives during this Jubilee Year that restore hope… initiatives that help people regain confidence in themselves and in society.”
(From the Papal Bull proclaiming the Jubilee Year 2025).
This mass reading underscores Zovko’s ongoing commitment to promote dialogue, mutual understanding and to protect religious freedom around the world.
In this regard, Zovko is organizing a working group meeting with the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, on the topic of the urgent need to appoint a Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion. Zovko strongly advocates that this appointment is necessary in a context of rising religious persecutions around the world, especially of Christians, as well as the rise of antisemitism.
She recently met His Holiness Pope Leo XIV and highlighted on this occasion that, as Christian Democrats, her political group bears a moral responsibility to promote peace and mutual understanding in crisis areas and to actively commit to the protection of persecuted Christians worldwide. Zovko has always advocated for the need to achieve peace through dialogue. As rapporteur on preventive diplomacy during the last mandate, she recommended to increase the EU diplomatic staff’s understanding of local and religious context to better foster dialogue, interreligious coexistence and peace.
Moreover, as member of the committee on foreign affairs of the European Parliament (AFET), Zovko engages actively in the protection of Christians around the world. She initiated a resolution of the European Parliament on the repression of religious communities in Nicaragua, notably of the Catholic Church.
Zovko will also take part in a mission of the European Parliament AFET committee in Nigeria and Ghana next week, where she will advocate for more EU commitment to protect Christians that are persecuted by terrorist groups in Nigeria, notably by Fulani bandits.
“With rising global instability and growth of religious intolerance, the EU must take a firm stand in favour of religious freedom and the protection of religion communities against outdated regimes that want to silence them. We are at a critical juncture that demands unequivocal action”, Zovko stated.
Over the last years, Zovko was actively involved in the negotiation of several European Parliament resolutions on the severe persecution of religious freedom, notably of Christians, in Nigeria.
The texts of these resolutions can be found in the following links:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2023-0116_EN.html
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-9-2024-0105_EN.html
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-10-2025-0122_EN.html