Ratko Perić

Ratko Perić (born 2 February 1944) is a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Mostar-Duvno and apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1993 until his retirement in 2020. After his retirement in July 2020, he briefly served as the apostolic administrator of both dioceses until the instalment of his successor Petar Palić in September 2020.

Two issues, inherited from his predecessors, marked his episcopate: the Herzegovina Affair and the question of the alleged apparitions in Medjugorje. Regarding the first issue, the division of parishes between the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina and the diocese, Perić insisted on the implementation of Romanis Pontificibus, which decreed that Franciscans are ought to handover several parishes in Herzegovina. The parishes in question remained occupied by the Franciscans, with friars holding them being expelled from the Franciscan Order and banned from doing their priestly duties. Regarding the alleged apparitions in Medjugorje, Perić remained firm in expressing the official position of the Catholic Church and his predecessors, that nothing supernatural occurred in Medjugorje.

Early life Family and education Ratko Perić was born in the village of Tuk, in the municipality of Rovišće, near Bjelovar in present-day Croatia, where his parents, Grgo and Anica née Raguž, moved from Rotimlja near Stolac. He was baptised on 5 February 1944 in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Rovišće. in June 1969. In 1993 he began to lecture on ecclesiology and mariology at the Theological Institute in Mostar. The Vatican appreciated prelates' being knowledgeable about other faiths and ecumenical affairs. For this reason, after Žanić's retirement, Perić succeeded him as Bishop of Mostar-Duvno on 24 July 1993. He is also the permanent apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Trebinje-Mrkan.

Herzegovina Affair

In June 1975, to settle jurisdictional disputes between the Franciscan Province of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Diocese, Pope Paul VI issued a decree, Romanis Pontificibus, specifying which parishes the friars could retain and which were to be turned over to be administered by diocesan clergy. By 1980, the friars had still not relinquished ten named parishes. As coadjutor, Perić assisted Bishop Žanić in attempting to implement the decree. The parties were still working on the full implementation as late as December 1998, when a joint statement was issued by the Most Revd. Archbishop Marcello Zago, OMI, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Franciscan Minister General, Brother Giacomo Bini, and Bishop Perić, which read in part, "The Holy See and the Order intend to keep informed regarding the progress of the transfer. Any friars who disobey should know that they incur the penalties envisaged in the laws of the Church and the Order."

On 2 April 1995, Bishop Perić, along with his secretary, was abducted by an angry mob connected to the Franciscans and held in a car in front of a Franciscan friary for eight hours. The abduction was retaliation for Perić's intention to replace the Franciscans with diocesan priests in several parishes as well because of his criticism of the unconfirmed Marian apparitions in Medjugorje. He was released only after the intervention from the Mayor of Mostar and UNPROFOR.

In 1996, Perić ordered the Franciscans in Čapljina to give the parish to the diocesan priests, and the Pope sent an envoy to convince them to do so. The friars refused to do so and the parishioners barricaded the church doors. Provincial of the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina Tomislav Pervan convinced the congregation to stop protesting and remove the barricade.

Perić suspended nine friars who refused to sign the Declaration and acted in disobedience. They were also expelled from Franciscan Order. In 2004, he forbade 24 friars to conduct pastoral duties for their refusal to sign the Declaration.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II asked the members of the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order to carry into effect the decision of his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, going back to 1975.

Medjugorje

Perić has the same stance towards the alleged Marian apparitions of Medjugorje as his predecessor Pavao Žanić. He considers the alleged apparitions to be false and referred to them as a "religious show" and "spectaculum mundo". Perić wrote a personal letter declaring his position that nothing supernatural was occurring in Medjugorje (the third designation). In order not to mislead the faithful into believing that his statement was an official Church position, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that was presided over at the time by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote in a letter to the bishop of Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion that "what Bishop Perić said in his letter [...] is and remains his personal opinion."

On February 27, 2017 Perić issued a statement saying: "Considering everything that this diocesan chancery has so far researched and studied, including the first seven days of alleged apparitions, we can say: there have been no apparitions of Our Lady in Medjugorje."

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