Zagreb, (IKA) – On January 25, Archbishop Ivan Prenđa of Zadar died unexpectedly in Zagreb at the age of 70, after 46 years in the priesthood and 20 in the episcopate, according to a statement issued by the Press Office of the Croatian Conference of Bishops.
Archbishop Prenđa was born on December 31, 1939 in Zemunik Gornji. He graduated from the archdiocesan secondary school in Zadar and attended the Catholic School of Theology in Zagreb, from which he received a licentiate diploma in theology in 1967. On June 29, 1964, he was ordained a priest in Zadar. From 1964 to 1968, he served as the parish priest in Škabrnja, Nadin and Smilčić. From 1968 to 1970, he was the spiritual advisor at the Zmajević Archdiocesan Seminary in Zadar, and from 1970 to 1992 the head of that institution. He was a catechist of young people in Zadar from 1970 to 1972, correspondent of the Catholic weekly Glas Koncila from 1981 to 1990, and the head of the Department for Religious Vocations in the Zadar Archdiocese from 1970 to 1992. Msgr. Prenđa was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Zadar on March 29, 1990 by Pope John II and ordained on June 9 of that year in the Zadar cathedral. He assumed the office of the archbishop of Zadar on February 2, 1996. Msgr. Prenđa held many offices in the Croatian Conference of Bishops, and was currently the president of the Council of the CCB for the Clergy and a member of the Mixed Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, the Conference of the Heads of Religious Orders and the Union of Mother Superiors.

A Requiem Mass held today in the Zagreb cathedral for Archbishop Ivan Prenđa was concelebrated by Archbishop Josip Cardinal Bozanić, together with the apostolic nuncio in Croatia, Archbishop Mario Roberto Cassari, Croatian archbishops, bishops and approximately thirty priests.

The body of the late archbishop was then taken to Zadar, where the funeral will be held on Saturday, January 30, at 11 a.m. The funeral ceremonies will begin with a Requiem Mass, to be led by Cardinal Bozanić, followed by the interment of the late archbishop in the tomb of the Zadar archbishops in the cathedral of St. Anastasia.