Frane Franić

Frane Franić (29 December 1912 – 17 March 2007) was a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the Archbishop of Split-Makarska from 1969 until his retirement in 1988.

Franić was born in Kaštel Kambelovac in southern Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary on 29 December 29 1912.

He attended elementary school there from 1919 to 1923.

From 1923 to 1931 he attended the Episcopal Seminary, a classical grammar school with public rights.

In Split, he enrolled in the Central Theological School and completed philosophical and theological studies.

On 25 December 1936, he was ordained as a priest.

After the ordination, Franić served as a religion teacher and prefect of the Split seminary.

Franić went to postgraduate studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where, in 1941, he gained a doctorate in theological sciences after successfully defending his doctoral thesis titled De iustitia originali et de peccato originali secundum Duns Scotum.

For many years he was professor of philosophy, Latin, and religion at the Split High School of Liturgy, chaplain of the Prison of St. Roka (1941–1943), a prefect at the Seminary (1942–1945), a librarian in the small seminary and director of the central theological seminary (1945–1956).

Franić was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Split-Makarska in 1950 and in 1954, he became the apostolic administrator of the diocese.

After returning from Rome, he held various positions in Split.

He was promoted to Assistant Bishop on 17 December 1950, and since then acted as General Vicar.

In 1953 he restored the Vjesnik of Split-Makarska diocese.

When such an association was established in Croatia in 1953, Franić issued a ban on the clerical associations, entailing a suspension if violation would occur.

The order was sent to all priests in the Diocese of Split-Makarska, and according to Franić, was received "enthusiastically" by 90 percent of the clergy.

Prior to that, Franić was the apostolic administrator of the same diocese from 1954 to 1960, and an auxiliary bishop, holding the title of the titular bishop of Agathopolis, from 1950 to 1954.

Franić belonged to a group of conservative prelates willing to engage in a dialogue with the communist government of Yugoslavia.

As an archbishop, Franić promoted a dialogue between Christianity and Marxism, entering in conflict with the Archbishop of Zagreb, Franjo Kuharić, who was an opponent of the dialogue.

In 1954 he was ordained as the Split-Makarska bishop.

In the fall of 1958, three men ambushed him and threatened to set him on fire.

The communists closed the diocesan-owned theological faculty and seminary in Split for six years as a response.

The closing of the Split seminary created a problem for raising future Dalmatian clergy.

In 1959, 18 priests in total were suspended in Croatia.

For his opposition, Franić was harassed by the communists.

A week after he issued the ban, Franić was surrounded by several communists while visiting a village parish and was threatened with death.

A few days later, he was taken to the occupied Franciscan friary in Makarska and was threatened again.

For that reason, Archbishop of Zadar Mate Garković opened a seminary in Zadar in 1959.

He also served as the last Bishop of Split-Makarska, before the diocese was elevated to the status of an archdiocese, from 1960 to 1969.

After 1960s, Franić also promoted ecumenical dialogue.

When the Split seminary was reopened in 1963, the Dalmatian bishops tried to resolve the issue of the two existing seminaries by trying to establish a single bilocated institution.

However, Franić was opposed to this idea, which led to a decline in relations between the Diocese of Split and the Archdiocese of Zadar.

At the very end of the Second Vatican Council, the Dalmatian bishops, including Franić, held a meeting in Rome on 18 November 1965.

The bishop of Zadar Josip Arnerić proposed moving the two-year study of philosophy from Split to Zadar.

The proposal was accepted by all the bishops except Garković.

The meeting ended in agreement that the priests should receive two years of philosophical education in Zadar and four years of theology in Split.

Garković sent the record of the meeting to the Holy See, which was satisfied with the agreement.

When Pope Paul VI established the Split-Makarska archbishopric on July 27, 1969, Franić was elevated to be the resident Archbishop of the metropolis.

He remained at the head of the Split-Makarska Archdiocese until his retirement, October 16, 1988.

The communist government tried to impose its control of clergy by establishing various clerical associations.

The Episcopal Conference of Yugoslavia at first discouraged, and then banned membership in such organisations.