Ratko Perić

The Most Reverend
Ratko Perić
Bishop of Mostar-Duvno and Apostolic Administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan
Province Sarajevo
Diocese
See Mostar
Appointed 24 July 1993
Predecessor Pavao Žanić
Orders
Ordination 29 June 1969
by Petar Čule
Consecration 14 September 1992
by Franjo Kuharić
Personal details
Born (1944-02-02) 2 February 1944
Tuk, Rovišće, FS Croatia, DF Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia
Nationality Croat
Denomination Roman Catholic
Residence Mostar
Alma mater

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb;

Pontifical Urban University

Motto Kroz nevolje u kraljevstvo Božje
Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}

Msgr Ratko Perić (born 2 February 1944) is the current Bishop of Mostar-Duvno and Apostolic Administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan.

Life

Ratko Perić was born in the village of Tuk in the Rovišće municipality, near Bjelovar in Croatia. After studies in Zagreb and Rome, he was ordained priest on 29 June 1969 in Prisoje. He received doctorate from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in 1971, and then taught at Catholic seminaries in Sarajevo, Zagreb, and for several years at the Gregoriana in Rome. He was rector of the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome in Rome, 1980-92.[1] He is fluent in Italian, German and English.

Bishop

In May 1992 Pope John Paul II named him coadjutor bishop of Mostar-Duvno.[1] Since the Mostar Cathedral was heavily damaged in the ongoing war, Bishop Perić's consecration took place in Neum, on 14 September 1992. He was consecrated by Franjo Cardinal Kuharić, Archbishop of Zagreb, assisted by Archbishop Josip Uhač, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and Pavao Žanić, bishop of Mostar-Duvno.[2] Following Bishop Žanić's retirement, Perić succeeded him as Bishop of Mostar-Duvno on 24 July 1993. He is the permanent apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan.[1]

Romanis Pontificibus

In June 1975, in order to settle jurisdictional disputes between the Franciscan Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Diocese, Pope Paul VI issued a decree, Romanis Pontificibus, specifying which parishes the friars could retain and which were to be turned over to be administered by diocesan clergy. By 1980 the friars had still not relinquished ten named parishes. As coadjutor, Perić assisted Bishop Žanić in attempting to implement the decree. The parties were still working on full implementation as late as December 1998, when a joint statement was issued by the Most Revd. Archbishop Marcello Zago, OMI, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Franciscan Minister General, Brother Giacomo Bini, and Bishop Perić, which read in part, "The Holy See and the Order intend to keep informed regarding the progress of the transfer. Any friars who disobey should know that they incur the penalties envisaged in the laws of the Church and of the Order."[3]

In 2003 Pope John Paul II asked the members of the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order to carry into effect the decision of his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, going back to 1975. On 1 April 1995, Perić was kidnapped by Croatian militiamen of the HVO in Mostar after he tried to replace Franciscan monks with diocesan priests who are less nationalistic, bishop and his security are released after 8 hours.[4]

Post-War reconstruction

According to Helen Walasek, Bishop Perić supported the actions of local authorities to "pursue their policy of cultural and ethnic exclusivism."[5] Permits to rebuild the Čaršija Mosque were denied despite a warning from the OHR Senior High Deputy Representative. In 2001, Perić promoted the notion that the location was the site of an earlier Christian structure which required important archeological investigation.[5]

Gorana Ognjenović identifies Perić as leading a group of Catholic priests who justified the demolition of mosques and called for Catholic churches to be built on the ruins. Personally handed in by Perić on 15 April 2015 to the President of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipović, at a meeting in Mostar Cathedral, the bishop referred to "the right of Serbs to have 'their own' entity when appealing for parts of Bosnia to be defined as [an ethnic Croat] region in which institutions, schools, cultural and public health bodies, and banks, would be governed by Croats … Josipovic received the memorandum and never expressed any opposition to its political contents."[6]

Medjugorje

Perić is opposed to the alleged Marian apparitions of Medjugorje.[7] Perić wrote a personal letter declaring his position that nothing supernatural was occurring in Medjugorje (the third designation). In order not to mislead the faithful into believing that his statement was an official Church position, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that was presided over at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote in a letter to the bishop of Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion that "what Bishop Perić said in his letter … is and remains his personal opinion."[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Msgr. dr. Ratko Perić, bishop of Mostar-Duvno diocese and apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan", Mir Vama, papa.ba; accessed 16 November 2016.
  2. ↑ "Bishop Ratko Perić". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Visit of the Minister General to the Province of the Assumption of the BVM", cafarus.ch; accessed 16 November 2016.
  4. ↑ "Srebrenica: a 'safe area : Appendix XIII" (PDF). Niod.nl. Retrieved 2016-11-17.
  5. 1 2 "Obstructions to the Integration of the Heritage into Post-war Reconstruction in Stolac", Bosnia and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2015, p. 276; ISBN 9781409437048
  6. ↑ Ognjenović, Gorana. Politicization of Religion, The Power of Symbolism, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp. 112-13; ISBN 9781137477897
  7. ↑ Bishop Ratko Peric. Throne of Wisdom. 1995. -- Excerpt from a Croatian book in which the Bishop describes criteria for discerning the authenticity of apparitions.
  8. ↑ University of Dayton International Marian Research Institute: "Letter from Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Pr. No 154/81-06419 (26 May 1998) To His Excellency Mons. Gilbert Aubry, Bishop of Saint-Denis de la Reunion", udayton.edu, 9 December 2013.
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