Press Release of the Inter-Church Commission of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Croatian Bishops’ Conference

Church of Serbia – June 2017

The fifth meeting of the Inter-Church Commission of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Croatian Bishops’ Conference was held at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica, Montenegro, on Wednesday the 7^th  and on Thursday the 8^th of June 2017, the task of  task was to jointly consider the role of Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac before, during and after the Second World war.

The theme of the meeting was “The Archbishop and Cardinal Stepinac and Communist persecution from 1945 to 1960.”

On behalf of the Holy See, the meeting was chaired by the President of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science Fr. Bernard Ardura. As representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the work of the Commission were: Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana Dr. Porfirije; Metropolitan of Montenegro and Littoral Dr. Amfilohije; Bishop of Backa Dr. Irinej; Bishop of Slavonia Jovan, Prof. Dr. Darko Tanaskovic, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Serbia at UNESCO, as well as on this occasion invited experts, Prof. Dr. Ljubodrag Dimic, Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade; Dr. Milan Koljanin, Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade; prof. Dr. Radmila Radic, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Recent History of Serbia in Belgrade. As representatives of the Croatian Conference of Bishops in this Commission were: Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanic; Bishop of Mostar, Monsignor Ratko Peric; as well as Dr. Jure Kristo and Dr. Mario Jareb, Scientific Advisors with the Croatian Institute for History. Member of the Commission Bishop of Pozega Dr. Antun Skorcevic was justifiably absent.

It is anticipated that the last meeting of the Commission will be held in Rome on the 12^th and the 13^th of July 2017, when the current work of the Commission will be summarize.

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