President of Croatia Zoran Milanović and his wife Sanja Musić Milanović met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Friday, where the president formally invited the Pontiff to visit Croatia. Following the private audience, Milanović told reporters that the meeting was pleasant and friendly, and that the Pope reacted positively to the invitation. “I gave him a formal invitation and he reacted positively. I believe he will come to Croatia,” the president said.
Milanović emphasized that the conversation was not political in nature, noting that issues such as migration were mentioned only in the broader context of the Pope’s ongoing humanitarian work.
He also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, where both sides reaffirmed strong bilateral relations and discussed the situation in the Western Balkans, particularly the position of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As a symbolic gesture, the Croatian president presented the Pope with a copy of the Missal of the Law of the Roman Court (1483), the first printed Croatian book in Glagolitic script — which Milanović described as “a monument perhaps even greater than the Baška tablet.”
