CROATIAN FILM INSTITUTE

CROATIAN FRANCISCANS & THE DIASPORA

This is the story of Franciscan Pavao Maslać whose life journey led him at age four from the post-World War II Bleiburg Massacre in Austria to the protective arms of the Franciscans in Italy, then on to the United States of America where he was ordained as a Franciscan priest. 

He describes his life as guided by God’s hand, dedicated to the people, as was St. Francis’s, in particular to the large Croatian diaspora. As a member of the Croatian Franciscan Custody in Chicago, this extraordinary group of friars and holy sisters has over the past one hundred years promoted and preserved Croatian national consciousness, love for their original homeland, culture, and faith. Fra Maslać concludes that “Love is the key. Without it, man is alone. As you cannot live without love, you cannot live fully without a homeland.”

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