The modern church parish building, which is located on the former war dividing line in Dobrinja, was too cramped to receive all who came for this occasion, in the afternoon hours of the feast of the founder of the Franciscan order, to celebrate the patron saint and 25 years of the canonical founding of the parish. Holy Mass in the presence of the archbishop of Vrhbosna in peace cardinal Vinko Puljić and the concelebration of more than 30 priests was introduced by the provincial of the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena, OFM Zdravko Dadić. Franciscan theologians, nuns from different societies and theologians from the Archdiocesan Mission International Seminary Redemptoris Mater in Vogošća participated as well.

The all-time figure of St. Francis

At the beginning, the parish priest OFM Danijel Rajić greeted the congregation in a special way, welcoming the believers from Busovača and Vitez who came to prayerfully attend the taking of lifelong monastic vows of their sons, OFM Danijel Lukić and OFM Hrvoje Žabić.

Introducing the Holy Mass, Provincial Dadić pointed out the relevance and challenge of the image of St. Francis of Assisi, to whom the parish on Dobrinja was dedicated a quarter of a century ago, and by whose example two young people decided to follow Christ for life in the Franciscan Order.

He continued this thought in his sermon, pointing out that the image of the Seraphic Father is timeless and even today he encourages us to recognize God's creation in every human being and not to be afraid to be guided by the logic of love.

“Jesus loves converted bad boys. He loves them because they are not 'cars', but locomotives - they move others to do good”, pointed out OFM Zdravko, warning of the ubiquitous temptation of despair and worry, which arises from a lack of freedom. In this sense, he told the vowed to keep in mind that “it is the vows of poverty, purity and obedience that you vowed that give you the opportunity to be completely free inside”.

Finally, he referred to the silver jubilee of the existence of the parish in Dobrinja, which “came out of nothing” in difficult times. In this sense, he thanked Cardinal Vinko who “had a vision and recognized the need for this part of Christ's flock by founding a parish in this part of the city of Sarajevo, which he entrusted to the friars”.

At the end, he mentioned by name all the parish priests who, after the initial “wartime” pastoral work of OFM Mirko Majdandžić and late OFM Ljubo Lucić, acted here: OFM Ivica Matić, OFM Franjo Radman, OFM Ante Ivanović, OFM Blažan Lipovac, OFM Janko Ćuro, OFM Pero Karajica and current OFM Danijel Rajić.

The parish is rich both materially and spiritually

This was followed by the vow ceremony, in which the Franciscan theologians that were to lay their vows were presented by master of Franciscan theologians in Sarajevo, OFM Danijel Nikolić to the believer’s community. He noted that OFM Hrvoje comes from the parish of Vitez, and is a native of Brajkovići, and that OFM Danijel is from Busovača. Both of them pronounced their vows of poverty, obedience and chastity in the hands of Provincial Dadić, becoming full members of the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena.

After the post-communion prayer, Master Nikolić said a few thoughts, mentioning how the parish of Dobrinja over the past 25 years of its existence has brought not only material fruits in the form of building a church, but above all spiritual ones, which, among other things, are reflected in the fact that they originated from it: a nun sister M. Antonija Hrgota and, besides him and parish priest Rajić: Franciscans Kristijan Montina and Marko Hrgota.

The Holy Mass celebration, which was animated with a song by the El Shaddai band of the parish prayer community Spiritus Sanctus, ended with prayers intended for complete forgiveness at the outdoor statue of St. Francis of Assisi, which is located in front of the church in the parish yard.

The religious community was preparing for the celebration of the patron saint for three days, when the Holy Masses were led by: the missionary of mercy OFM Josip Ikić, the parish priest in Novi Travnik, rev. Anto Ledić, and the educator in the Sarajevo KŠC Sv. Josip, rev. Sandro Jurešić. It should be mentioned that as part of the celebration of St. Francis in Dobrinja church, the exhibition Eucharistic miracles around the world, which was originally realized as an idea of the blessed 15-year-old Carl Acutis was set at the church.

By the way, during the last war, the Sarajevo settlement of Dobrinja was the scene of fierce battles. The pastoral care of the Catholics there was led by the then parish priest from Novi Grad, the late rev. Pero Iljkic. Afterwards, the Director of Caritas of the Vrhbosna Archdiocese, rev. Tomo Knežević. When he was replaced by rev. Franjo Tomić, he also took care of the believers in Dobrinja and in 1993 he did the blessings of the families by making the first list of members of this community. In the meantime, OFM Mirko Majdandžić and the late OFM Ljubo Lucić occasionally celebrated Holy Masses. After one of the signed truces in 1995, OFM Mirko practically took care of the Catholic community in this Sarajevo settlement, which was entrusted to the Franciscans of Bosna Srebrena by its canonical foundation on May 15^th, 1997, when it was separated from the parishes of Stup and Novi Grad.