The Vatican spokesperson, Fr. Federico Lombardi, said that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted an invitation by the Croatian government and the church to visit the Balkan nation, according to the Catholic News Service blog today (November 2, 2010).
Although no dates have been set, it is expected that the Pope will travel to the Croatian capital, Zagreb, in the spring of 2011.
Pope Benedict will visit the tomb of Blessed Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac during his visit to Croatia. Cardinal Stepinac served as archbishop of Zagreb and metropolitan of Croatia during World War II and Marshal Tito's term of dictatorship.
He opposed the communist regime and was convicted in 1946 by the Yugoslavian communist government on charges he was a Nazi supporter. He died in 1960 while under house arrest.
The Catholic Church has said that Cardinal Stepinac was persecuted because he refused to break the Yugoslavian church's allegiance to the Vatican by setting up a national Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul II declared Cardinal Stepinac a martyr and beatified him in 1998.
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