Pope begs forgiveness for Church’s role in Bosnia bloodshed

POPE John Paul II reached out to this embittered Balkan nation yesterday, asking God’s forgiveness for “so much suffering and bloodshed” inflicted by Roman Catholics and others.

Enfeebled by Parkinson's disease and hip and knee ailments, the 83-year-old pope urged Bosnia's Muslims, Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs to put their differences behind them and forge a lasting multiethnic society.

Under heavy security, John Paul celebrated Mass for 45,000 pilgrims at the monastery of Petricevac, which was destroyed by Serb saboteurs in 1995 near the end of a devastating three-and-half-year war. The conflict killed 250,000 people and made refugees of 1.8 million others.