His Eminence Franjo Šeper

His Eminence Franjo Šeper (October 2, 1905—December 30, 1981)

Franjo Šeper (October 2, 1905—December 30, 1981) was a Croatian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1968 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Contents

• Life and Ministry
• Archbishop of Zagreb
• Prefect of the CDF
• Cardinal
• Death and legacy

Blessed IVAN MERZ

Blessed I V A N   M E R Z Banja Luka, Dec. 16, 1896 - Zagreb, May 10, 1928 A “EUROPEAN-SIZED” APOSTLE OF THE YOUTH

Ivan Merz is a young layman from Croatia, who lived in an age full of big political changes that transformed Europe and left a strong mark on his life.

He was born on December 16, 1896 in Banja Luka from a liberal family when Bosnia  ( Bosnia and Herzegovina ) was occupied by Austria-Hungary; he had his secondary education in the multiethnic and multi-religious environment of his native town; he finished his studies at the same time when in Sarajevo the crown prince Francesco Ferdinando was murdered ( June 28, 1914).
According to his parent’s will, and not to his own, he joined the military Academy in Wiener Neustadt but, disgusted by the corruption of this environment, he quit it after three months. In 1915 he started his university studies in Vienna, but in 1916 he was called up by the army to be sent, later on, to the front, where he spent almost all 1917 and 1918. At the end of the First World War he was in Banja Luka , where he experienced the radical political change and the birth of the new Yugoslav State. In 1919 and in 1920 he was back in Vienna, studying at the Faculty of Philosophy. In October 1920 he set off for Paris, where he attended some lessons at the Sorbonne University and in the “Institute catholique”, preparing in the meantime his doctoral dissertation.