Public prayer gathering attacked in Zagreb
A monthly public rosary prayer in the main square of Zagreb and 12 other public places in Croatia has been repeatedly attacked by activists from the radical left. Since the politically inactive men have started gathering for rosary prayers in January 2023, aggressive political activists have started demonstrating against them, claiming that the peaceful prayer of the men would "limit women's rights".
In 2024, a report was published on the hostilities and slander against the public prayer gathering. When it became known that the men were praying, among other things, for chastity and the protection of unborn children, radical left-wing activists began to attack the prayer meetings.
The demonstrators came with offensive and vulgar banners such as "Only cowards and traitors kneel and mole" and specially designed T-shirts with the slogan "I don't want to live on my knees" and a crossed-out sign of a kneeling man.
The demonstrators, mostly from the radical left, also disrupted the rosary with loud drumming and vulgar slogans, leading to verbal and physical confrontations.
Some activists also mocked the public prayer in an "artistic performance", imitating it and comparing it to the preparation of a stew. They knelt in front of the cauldron in which the stew was being cooked, while one of the people gathered held a photo of Yugoslav communist dictator Josip Broz Tito (in reference to the men praying kneeling in front of the church holding pictures of Mary).
Some media reports, instead of condemning the violence against the praying believers, perpetuated negative stereotypes, prejudices and even false information about the praying Christians.
The praying men were described as a "patriarchal sect" and accused of radicalising Catholics and introducing Catholic Sharia law. The slander against the prayer meeting included media articles describing the private gathering of believers as "citizens with unconstitutional, dangerous intentions", a "conservative movement under the auspices of the extreme and part of the clerical right" and even outright slander against the believers, calling them "fat, mustachioed and ****ing knights of Mary" and claiming that they were "protesting against women's rights", even though the meeting consisted only of praying the rosary without any element of protest.
Source and picture: U ime obitelji