President Milanović Meets with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican and Invites him to an Official Visit to Croatia

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović, accompanied by his spouse Sanja Musić Milanović, met in the Vatican today with the Holy Father, Leo XIV, who received him in a private audience. Following their meeting, President Milanović confirmed that he invited Pope Leo XIV to an official visit to Croatia.

“I handed him a formal invitation and his reaction was good. I think he will come to Croatia”, President Milanović told journalists at the Vatican, adding that was his impression. President Milanović did not say much about the content of their discussion, but said that “there was no talk of politics”. “Migrants are a topic the Pope will deal with and already is. The conversation was pleasant”, the President noted.

Asked about the canonization of Cardinal Stepinac, President Milanović replied: “This is an internal Church matter, the concept of sainthood is something I do not understand at all, and I cannot talk about it”.

Besides the private audience with the Holy Father, President Milanović had a meeting with the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. During the discussion at the Secretariat of State, good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Croatia were confirmed. Part of the discussion dealt with international and regional issues with a focus on countries in the region.

“We discussed the region and the position of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is still the unresolved situation in which one majority people elects a representative of another people. This has been done four times so far and unless it is regulated or prevented by law, it will continue to be so. And above all it is normatively illegal and wrong the whole time. This is a matter for European affairs and the Croatian Government to somehow enforce because we have the instruments for that”, he said about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the topics discussed at the Vatican.

The Croatian President presented to Pope Leo the “Missal According to the Rite of the Roman Court” of 1483, the first edition of the Croatian book printed in the angular Glagolitic script. “This is a monument perhaps even greater that the Baška Tablet”, the President said about a book that was published just 28 years after the first European printed book, the Gutenberg Bible.

Subsequently, President Milanović visited the Pontifical Croatian Institute of St. Jerome and met with Croatian students attending Catholic Universities in Rome.

PHOTO: © Vatican Media

              Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić