The Commemoration for our Late Ecclesiastical Assistant Emeritus Msgr. Valentin Pozaić

On the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on June 17, 2023, in the Margarita Peraica Auditorium at the Croatian Catholic Medical Society’s headquarters, a commemoration was held for late Msgr. Valentin Pozaić, auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, also ecclesiastical assistant emeritus of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society (CCMS) and the European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FEAMC).

The commemoration was opened by antiphon Ubi caritas performed by the Oratorio Choir Cantores sancti Marci, based on the Gregorian chant “Where charity and love are, There is God”. The commemoration program was led by Andrea Koščec, M.Pharm., Secretary of the CCMS. 

The first speaker at the commemoration was Prof. Ivan Šestak, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Sciences of the University of Zagreb, also representative of the Croatian Province of the Society of Jesus to which Fr. Pozaić belonged. Prof. Šestak presented the life and professional path of Fr. Pozaić during his activity in the Society of Jesus, until his appointment as a bishop. He referred to the numerous positions that Fr. Pozaić held in his Society with dedication and responsibility, as well as his contribution to the founding of the Center for Bioethics and Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus in Zagreb.

Msgr. Tomislav Subotičanec, Vicar General and Moderator of the Ordinariate of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, and delegate of Msgr. Dražen Kutleša, the President of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Zagreb, spoke about Pozaić’s activities as Auxiliary Bishop. Pope John Paul II appointed Fr. Valentin Pozaić, a member of the Society of Jesus, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Zagreb in 2005. Msgr. Subotičanec highlighted three areas of Bishop Pozaić’s pastoral activities: care for persons of consecrated life, management of the work of Caritas, and pastoral care for two archdeaconries of the Archdiocese. In relation to persons of consecrated life and religious communities, Msgr. Pozaić behaved mildly and fatherly, giving numerous advices and instructions, especially during the several visits he made to monasteries in the area of the Archdiocese of Zagreb. With clear statements, detailed reports on the work done, with scientific precision and wise assessments, he led significant archdiocesan projects, giving to his collaborators a sense of trust and security. Even today, we still fondly remember his unswerving attitudes, which in many decision-making situations were a support and an incentive for correct actions, stressed Msgr. Subotičanec.

Msgr. Pozaić also had an international reputation. Therefore, it was an exceptional honor to host Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who expressed warm words of sympathy and comfort to the members of the CCMS. He also reflected on Bishop Pozaić’s work in Rome and the Vatican: as a professor of moral theology and ethics at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, as a member of the editorial board of the Croatian program on Vatican Radio, and as the ecclesiastical assistant of the European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FEAMC). Msgr. Pegoraro particularly highlighted the bishop’s moral integrity and authority, with a deep sense of early recognition of the various contemporary challenges within medical profession, and a keen sense of preserving Catholic moral principles in medical ethics.

The current ecclesiastical assistant of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society, Prof. Ivan Bodrožić, referred to the contribution of Bishop Pozaić during the establishment of the CCMS and his 28 years of service as an ecclesiastical assistant of the CCMS. Prof. Bodrožić presented the activities of Msgr. Pozaić as an ecclesiastical assistant – a Sentinel, who watches over his nation, in the same spirit in which the Old Testament prophet was called to be a sentinel. We read how God ordered the prophet Ezekiel (cf. Ez 33,1) to announce and warn of the need for vigilance, taking the lead as a sentinel. He was a prophet who sounded the trumpet, observing and studying the ruinous phenomena of the modern world, such as sin, immorality, perversion, impiety, threats to life, changing paradigms of marriage and family, and experimentation on humans, and strenuously warned and taught the members of the CCMS to defend these values boldly, pointed out Prof. Bodrožić. However, Prof. Bodrožić also stressed the work of Bishop Pozaić as an ecclesiastical assistant – a Pastor, who watches over his flock, walk in front of his flock, and as a great champion of the culture of life. Due to the impossibility of joining us live due to an official trip abroad, his text was presented by dr. Andrija Miculinić, secretary general of the CCMS.

The last person to address during the commemoration was Prof. Rok Čivljak, president of the CCMS. He expressed his gratitude to all the speakers and guests who joined the commemoration for our late Bishop Pozaić. But also, he expressed his gratitude to God for the gift of Fr. Valentin Pozaić, whom he sent to us as the founder of the CCMS and our first ecclesiastical assistant. Nonetheless, Pater Pozaić was not only our ecclesiastical assistant, who followed our formation as Catholic physicians and pharmacists, but also a caring father who followed our professional careers and family lives, stressed Prof. Čivljak. His episcopal motto, Elige vitam! – Choose Life!, was also a message to the members of the CCMS, as a basic mission of the medical profession, which he incorporated into the CCMS Statutes: care for the sick and infirm as well as the protection of human life from conception to natural death. 

At the end of the commemoration, the members of the CCMS bid farewell to their ecclesiastical assistant Bishop Pozaić with a hymn that he listened to and sang so fondly, the song of the Croatian poet Dragutin Domjanić’: Every rose implores the sun, every grass implores the sun, like the heart of a poor fellow implores you, O Mother of God, performed by members of the Oratorio Choir Cantores sancti Marci.

In addition to the previously mentioned speakers, members of the Bishop’s family and members of the CCMS, the commemoration was also attended by: Fr. Alfred D’Souza, secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in the Republic of Croatia and delegate of the nuncio Msgr. Giorgio Lingua; Dr. Ermanno Pavesi, official of the European (FEAMC) and the International Association of Catholic Medical Societies (FIAMC); academician Emilio Marin, professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Croatia and former ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to the Holy See; close associates of Bishop Pozaić: Prof. Stjepan Večković, chancellor emeritus of the Diocesan Curia of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, s. Jelena Lončar, director of Caritas of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, and Mrs. Margaret Casman Vuko, translator; as well as numerous representatives of the academic and religious communities and professional societies.

Members of the Youth Section of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society led us through this commemoration reading several excerpts from Bishop Pozaić’s works: The Ethics of Human Birth (1990), Euthanasia: Death by One’s Own or Another’s Volition (1985), Cloning as a Question of Responsibility (1997) and Pastoral Health Care as a Challenge to the Church (published in 2013).

Memorare, o piissima Virgo Maria – Remember Him, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary!

Petar Bilić, M.D., Ph.D.

Vice President of the CCMS