Franjo Šeper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Styles of
Franjo Cardinal Šeper
Reference style His Eminence
Spoken style Your Eminence
Informal style Cardinal
See Zagreb


Franjo Cardinal Šeper (October 2, 1905December 30, 1981) was a Croatian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1968 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Contents

[edit] Life and Ministry

Born in Osijek (then part of Austria-Hungary, but now Croatia), he and his family moved to Zagreb in 1910; his father was a tailor and his mother a seamstress. Studying in Zagreb and Rome (including the Pontifical Gregorian University), Šeper was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Giuseppe Palica on October 26, 1930. He did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Zagreb and, in 1934, was appointed private secretary to the Archbishop. In 1941 Father Šeper became the rector of the archdiocesan seminary, a post which he held for the next decade. On July 22, 1954 he was named coadjutor archbishop of Zagreb and titular archbishop of Philippopolis; he received his episcopal consecration on the following September 21 from Archbishop Josip Ujčić of Belgrade.

[edit] Archbishop of Zagreb

He succeeded Alojzije Cardinal Stepinac as Archbishop of Zagreb on March 5, 1960, and was created Cardinal Priest of Ss. Pietro e Paolo a Via Ostiense by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of February 22, 1965. Cardinal Šeper, who advocated religious liberty and the liturgical introduction of the vernacular during the Second Vatican Council, was named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 8 January 1968; he resigned as Archbishop of Zagreb on 20 August 1969. He was also a cardinal elector in the August and October conclaves of 1978.

Cardinal Šeper retired as Prefect on 25 November 1981 and died a month later, on the morning of 30 December, at 76 from a heart attack in Gemelli Hospital. Pope John Paul II presided over his funeral Mass, and the cardinal's body was later transferred to Zagreb, where it is buried beside the tomb of Cardinal Stepinac.

On the 25th anniversary of his death (30 December 2006), Šeper's successor as Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith, William Cardinal Levada celebrated a Requiem Mass at the Zagreb cathedral.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Alojzije Stepinac
Archbishop of Zagreb
1960-1970
Succeeded by
Franjo Kuharić
Preceded by
Alfredo Ottaviani
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
1968-1981
Succeeded by
Joseph Ratzinger
Preceded by
Titular Church Created
Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Pietro e Paolo a Via Ostiense
1965-1981
Succeeded by
Ricardo Cardinal Vidal