Zadar (IKA) – Immediately upon learning of the Pope’s death, the archbishop of Zadar, Ivan Prenđa, made the following statement to the media:

“At this grave moment for the entire Catholic Church, I wish to express my sorrow due to the tremendous loss of the Holy Father John Paul II, who has completed his earthly path as the Supreme Pontiff of the Church and has gone to meet the Resurrected Christ. Regarding the needs of the Church, it is understandable that at this moment we believers feel that this a loss for us, viewed from the human aspect.

“Likewise, at this moment I also wish to express my pride. I am proud to have lived during the time of John Paul II, that I am in the Church at which John Paul II was the head, a shepherd in a local Church, that I lived my priestly and episcopal role in community with him for the benefit of the Church of God. I am immensely grateful for the role of John Paul II in the life of our Church among the Croatian nation, but in a particular way our local Church, the Zadar Archdiocese, because I, like all the faithful of our archdiocese, was overjoyed by his pastoral visit to Croatia and the Zadar Archdiocese in June 2003. This pride and gratitude are mixed at this moment with our grateful prayer to God for such a great figure of our Church.

“He gave his stamp to the life of the Church but he also made a great contribution to human society in the second half of the 20th century and the entry into the third millennium. I am certain that this great impact that John Paul II has left shall yield abundant fruits for the Church and for humanity.
We in the Zadar Archdiocese consider ourselves to be the heirs to that which the Pope bequeathed to us in his famous speech at the Forum, when he urged us, like Mary, to be open to the New Evangelization in our archdiocese. I am certain that we will try to live up to the Pope’s expectations. At this moment, I invite all the faithful of the Zadar Archdiocese to thank God and to pray for the Holy Father, for the Lord to receive him and reward him for his life and work for the Church of God in this world.”