Biography

Franjo Šeper was born in 1905 in Osijek, into a modest family devoted to faith and work. In 1910 the family moved to Zagreb, where he attended the Kaptol primary school and the Lower Town Gymnasium, graduating in 1924.

While still at school he took part in the Catholic youth movements and was a member of the Marian Congregation run by the Jesuits in Palmotićeva Street.

His decision to devote himself to the priesthood owed much to his acquaintance with Ivan Merz, later beatified. Once he had chosen the priestly vocation, Archbishop Antun Bauer of Zagreb sent him to study in Rome, at the Pontifical German-Hungarian College (Germanicum et Hungaricum), where he took his doctorate in philosophy in 1927 and in theology in 1931.

He was ordained priest in Rome in 1930, at the same time as Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, seven years his senior, with whom he had shared his student days.

He returned to Zagreb in July 1931 and became a religion teacher at the First Girls’ Real Gymnasium.

From 1935 to 1941 he served as archiepiscopal secretary, first to Archbishop Bauer and then to Archbishop Stepinac.

From 1941 to 1951 he was rector of the Archdiocesan Theological Seminary in Zagreb. He had to leave this post at the demand of the Yugoslav communist authorities. He was also convicted in a trial and kept under watch and surveillance by the police and the services of the communist regime.

From 1951 to 1954 he was parish priest of Christ the King in Trnje, Zagreb, where he showed great compassion for his poor parishioners.

In 1954 Pope Pius XII appointed him bishop, and in 1960, after the death of Archbishop Stepinac, he succeeded him as Archbishop of Zagreb.

His ministry was marked by the founding of 21 parishes and the opening of pastoral centres in flats in newly built Novi Zagreb, since the authorities did not allow churches to be built. In those years the fortnightly Glas Koncila was launched, and he both worked with and argued with theologians connected to the publisher Kršćanska sadašnjost.

At the Second Vatican Council, held from 1962 to 1965, the largest gathering of bishops and theologians in the history of the Catholic Church, he stood out for his interventions, was elected a member of the Council’s principal Theological Commission and was one of the important builders of the conciliar documents. During the Council he also kept a personal diary, a valuable record of that great assembly.

He also took part in shaping the Decree on Ecumenism, the document that opened new doors to dialogue among Christians.

In 1965 Pope Paul VI created Šeper a cardinal, giving him the Roman church of Saints Peter and Paul as his title.

In 1966 the Holy See and Yugoslavia signed a Protocol by which they exchanged representatives and settled some questions concerning the position of the Church. Šeper voiced his disagreement with this arrangement because of Tito’s treatment of the Catholic Church and of Cardinal Stepinac. He nevertheless gave way at the Holy Father’s request and took part in the Protocol as the highest-ranking churchman of the country from which the delegation came. Full diplomatic relations were established four years later, in 1970.

In 1968 Pope Paul VI appointed him Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. No Croat had ever been chosen for so high a position in the Catholic Church. It was one of the most responsible posts in the Church, at a time of heated theological debate and re-examination.

Accepting this important office, he moved to Rome, and Franjo Kuharić took over as Archbishop of Zagreb.

In his new office he faced the task of shaping the Congregation in a new way and introducing different working methods, in keeping with the new name Pope Paul VI had given it at the close of the Council, in 1965. His successor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, described his thirteen years at its head as exceptionally valuable, for bringing a spirit of dialogue, close cooperation with the bishops and an atmosphere of friendship in which the Congregation’s work bore fruit.

Cardinal Šeper was the first high-ranking churchman to argue for normalising relations between the Vatican and Israel.

Cardinal Šeper also played a prominent part in organising the celebration of thirteen centuries of Christianity among the Croats, the greatest event of the Church in Croatia in the 20th century, which brought together hundreds of Croatian faithful at large celebrations across Croatia.

He died in Rome in 1981. Pope John Paul II celebrated his funeral Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

At his own wish his body was returned to Zagreb and, after many of the faithful had taken leave of him in front of the cathedral, his remains were laid in the tomb of the archbishops of Zagreb, beside the coffin of Cardinal Stepinac.