34 Facts About Jozo Zovko

Jozo Zovko, OFM was born on 19 March 1941 and is a Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan priest, most notable for being a parish priest in Medjugorje during the alleged apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981.

Jozo Zovko was very active in the promotion of apparitions around the world.

Jozo Zovko is an adherent of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

Jozo Zovko was ordained a priest as a Franciscan in 1965.

However, Jozo Zovko continued to be active in Medjugorje and around the world, promoting the apparitions, despite the suspension.

Jozo Zovko finally submitted to the decree under pressure from Rome, and moved to a Franciscan friary in Badija near Korcula in Croatia in 2009, and periodically lived in Graz, Austria, until he moved permanently to Zagreb, Croatia's capital in 2011, where he currently lives.

Jozo Zovko was born March 1941 in Uzarici, Herzegovina and attended and finished elementary school in nearby Siroki Brijeg.

Jozo Zovko entered the seminary in Bol on the island of Brac in 1958.

Jozo Zovko was ordained a priest, as a member of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province, on 3 April 1965.

Jozo Zovko started taking courses in religious education in 1974 at the University of Gratz.

In November 1980, Jozo Zovko was appointed parish priest of the St James Church in Medjugorje.

Jozo Zovko was known to his colleagues to practice special devotions to the Madonna and often participated in catechetical summer schools as a lecturer and discussant of charismatic orientation.

Jozo Zovko noticed that the seers became agitated if anyone hinted that they were lying and he was taken by the fact that their physical descriptions of the Gospa were consistent with each other.

Jozo Zovko was suspicious at first when none of the visionaries used the exact words even when quoting the Madonna.

Jozo Zovko declined to go with the children that night to the mountain.

Jozo Zovko gave the seers several prayer books and rosaries and tried to teach them more about the church.

Jozo Zovko gave Mirjana a book on apparitions in Lourdes, from which the visionaries concluded that their apparitions would last until 3 July 1981, as in Lourdes.

Jozo Zovko answered that she would continue for as long as they wanted.

Jozo Zovko hid them in an inner room and locked them in.

Jozo Zovko told the authorities he had seen the children and the police ran off towards town away from the church.

Later that afternoon the apparition took place in the church and Jozo Zovko was given the same vision that the visionaries see.

Jozo Zovko refused to stop the evening mass and the children, in order to protect the church, started to gather outside on Podbrdo.

Jozo Zovko was then appointed a vicar in Tihaljina near Grude and remained in close touch with Medjugorje.

Jozo Zovko was appointed a guardian for the Franciscan friary in Siroki Brijeg and did not perform any pastoral duties.

Jozo Zovko continued to hear confessions, so the new Bishop Ratko Peric revoked his confessional jurisdiction as well in 1994.

Jozo Zovko denounced the parishioners who put profit above religious practice.

Jozo Zovko continued to promote the apparitions, traveling around the world, especially in the United States.

On 5 November 2002, Jozo Zovko began a speaking tour in the United States.

On this tour, the director of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Boston, Walter Rossi, forbade Jozo Zovko to hold a mass there after receiving a letter from the bishop of Mostar, Ratko Peric.

In fact a few days later, Jozo Zovko held a sermon in Boston with no problems.

The respective provincials, Father Bernardin Skunca OFM and Father Slavko Soldo OFM, invited Jozo Zovko to relocate to the old Franciscan friary and oversee its restoration.

However, Jozo Zovko ignored the request for four years until 2009, when he agreed to move to the friary in Badija on 16 February 2009.

Jozo Zovko was transferred to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, in December 2011 and resides in the Franciscan monastery of the Herzegovinian Franciscan Province.

Jozo Zovko played Zovko in the drama film Gospa, a 1995 Croatian movie directed by Jakov Sedlar.