Rome, Italy, Oct 29, 2010 / 15:09 pm
Croatia's Cardinal Josip Bozanić has announced that Benedict XVI will make a trip to Croatia in 2011. This will be his first time to the country as Pope.
Vatican Radio cited Croatia's Catholic news agency IKA, which reported that the announcement came after a meeting between Croatia's president Ivo Josipovic and Cardinal Bozanic, the current archbishop of Zagreb.
A commission to decide on the particulars of the trip will be comprised of Church and State officials, the president told IKA. One detail of the schedule is already known: the Pope will pray at the tomb of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac, an archbishop of Zagreb in the mid-20th century.
He died in 1960 after much persecution by communist authorities, even being jailed for a number of years while he was the standing archbishop. He was declared a martyr of the Church and beatified by John Paul II in 1997.