Josip Mrzljak Appointed as the New Bishop of Varaždin

Zagreb, (IKA) – At 12 noon on Tuesday, March 20, it was officially announced in the Vatican that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Josip Mrzljak of Zagreb as the new bishop of Varaždin, according to a statement issued by the Press Office of the Croatian Conference of Bishops.
Bishop Mrzljak will be the second bishop of the Varaždin Diocese, which marks its 10th anniversary this year, the successor to the late Bishop Marko Culej, who passed away on August 19 of last year.

Bishop Mrzljak was born on January 19, 1944 in Vukovar. His parents had formerly lived in Krašić and moved to Vukovar when his father obtained employment as a state official. In May 1945, his father disappeared and was probably killed by the communists, as were many others at the time in Vukovar. Immediately afterwards, his mother moved the family back to Krašić. Bishop Mrzljak completed his elementary schooling in Krašić during the time when the Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, archbishop of Zagreb, was being confined there under house arrest. In 1959, Bishop Mrzljak went to Zagreb to attend the Minor Seminary on Šalata, from which he graduated in 1963. He completed studies in theology at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb and was ordained a priest by Archbishop Franjo Kuharić on November 16, 1969. He celebrated his first Mass in Krašić on November 30, 1969. As a newly ordained priest, he assisted in various parishes (Okićka sv. Marija, Sigetec, Hrvatski Leskovac) and then for a year and a half was the vicar of the parish of sv. Nikola in Koprivnica. For eight years, he served as the pastor in Ozalj, from which he also administered the parish of Vrhovac for several years. In 1980, he was appointed the parish priest of Sesvetski Kraljevac, where he remained for eighteen years. In the summer of 1998, Archbishop Josip Bozanić appointed him as the episcopal vicar for priests and the head of the Pastoral Offices of the Zagreb Archdiocese, and shortly afterwards a canon of the Zagreb Cathedral Chapter. It was while serving in this capacity that he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Zagreb. He was ordained a bishop in the Zagreb cathedral on February 6, 1999. In the Croatian Conference of Bishops, he has served as the president of the Council of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for the Clergy, president of the Episcopal Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for Croatian Caritas and a member of the Episcopal Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops for Relations with the State. Bishop Mrzljak will be installed as the new bishop of Varaždin on Saturday, March 31, at 11 a.m. in the Varaždin cathedral.
“I have joyfully accepted the office of the bishop of Varaždin, where I feel at home,” Bishop Mrzljak announced on March 20 to journalists at a press conference in Zagreb. Bishop Mrzljak said that during his eight years of service in the Zagreb Archdiocese, he had the opportunity to learn a lot from Cardinal Josip Bozanić about leading a diocese. As Bishop Mrzljak said, there are no schools for learning how to be a bishop. A person must learn during his service and then attempt to administer and serve according to Church guidelines. When asked whether he would become more engaged in sociopolitical discussions, since until now he had generally been concentrated on pastoral work, Bishop Mrzljak responded that the Church is a part of the society in which we live and must certainly be interested in social and political life. “However, we do not want to be engaged in any petty politics but to be people who serve this society, nation and country in a correct manner, without entering into any political games whatsoever,” he commented, adding that he wants to cooperate with all those who are engaged in the leadership of the city, county and state. “I would like everyone to understand that the Church in this society is not a foreign element but a profoundly domestic reality that truly wants the good for each person. We hope to find agreement and a suitable response from the other side,” said Bishop Mrzljak.