Zagreb/Vatican, November 17, 2000 (IKA) The Apostolic Nunciate in the Republic of Croatia announces that today, Friday, November 17, 2000, at 12 noon, the Holy See issued the following decision:
“The Holy Father John Paul II has appointed Msgr. Ivan Devčić, until now head of the College of Theology in Rijeka, as the archbishop of the Rijeka Archdiocese.
Msgr. Ivan Devčić was born on January 1, 1948 in Krasno (the city of Senj), where he attended elementary school. He began secondary school in preparation for the priesthood in Rijeka and completed it in Pazin. He studied theology for three semesters in Rijeka and continued his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. In 1981, he received a doctorate in philosophy from the same university. He was ordained a priest in 1975, incardinated in what was then the Rijeka-Senj Archdiocese, and has served in the following capacities:
from 1980 to 1985, vice rector of the Theological Seminary in Rijeka;
from 1985 to 2000, rector and economic steward of the same seminary;
June 12, 2000, chosen as the head of the College of Theology in Rijeka — a branch of the Catholic College of Theology, University of Zagreb;
member of various councils of the Rijeka Archdiocese and the Croatian Conference of Bishops;
as a professor of theology, has published a number of works.
Secretariat, Croatian Conference of Bishops”