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Cardinal Kuharic dies
Led Balkan Church through era of bloodshed
Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, the former Archbishop of Zagreb, died in March at the age of 82.

Cardinal Kuharic, who was ordained to the priesthood by the legendary Croatian prelate and national hero, Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, in 1945, became an auxiliary bishop in Zagreb in 1964 and archbishop of the Croatian capital in 1970. He led the Croatian Church through the years of bloody civil war in the 1990s, after having been elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1983. His resignation as archbishop was accepted by the Pontiff in 1997—nearly two years after he submitted it, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.

In a telegram of condolence, sent to Archbishop Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, Pope John Paul II spoke of Cardinal Kuharic’s “generous, wise, and faithful service to Croatia’s Catholics.” The cardinal, he observed, had lived through both the era of Communist oppression and the violence of civil war. “He was involved, with all his energy, in the defense of liberty and the dignity of the Croatian people,” he added.