By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In an effort to help bolster a minority Catholic population and encourage dialogue and friendship among once-warring ethnic and religious communities, Pope Francis announced he would be visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The pope said he hoped the one-day trip June 6 to Sarajevo, the capital, would help “be an encouragement for the Catholic faithful, give rise to the  development of the good and contribute to strengthening fraternity, peace, interreligious dialogue and friendship.”

The pope made the surprise announcement Feb. 1 after leading the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square.

It will be Pope Francis’ eighth trip abroad and the 11th country he visits outside of Italy since his election two years ago.

The Balkan nation, which is struggling to rebuild itself after a devastating war marked by ethnic cleansing, is still largely divided along ethnic lines. Bosniaks make up 48 percent of the country’s nearly four million people, while Serbs make up 37 percent and Croats 14 percent. About 40 percent of all citizens are Muslim, 31 percent Orthodox and 15 percent Catholic.

The 1992-1995 conflict saw a Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims after the mostly Muslim Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. More than 200,000 Muslims and tens of thousands more were killed in the conflict, more than 600 Catholic churches were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Catholics were forced to flee certain regions.