Franjo Šeper

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Franjo Cardinal Šeper
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Zagreb|

Franjo Cardinal Šeper (October 2, 1905—December 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.

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.

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.

Trivia

*During his visit to the United States in 1966, he received an honorary doctorate from Villanova University.
*He was also a cardinal elector in the 1958 papal conclave, which selected Pope John XXIII, and an elector in the 1963 papal conclave, which selected Pope Paul VI.

External links

* [http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/77-3-277.shtml 1968 News article on Šeper's appointment as Prefect of CDF]
* [http://www.sspxasia.com/Documents/Archbishop-Lefebvre/Apologia/Vol_three/Chapter_22.htm Michael Davies's account of his 1980 meeting with Šeper]