Ivan Štironja

Ivan Štironja (Montenegrin: Иван Штироња; born 10 May 1960) is a Montenegrin prelate of the Catholic Church who serves as the bishop of Kotor since 2020.

The Most Reverend Ivan Štironja
Bishop of Kotor
Ivan Štironja in 2009
Church	Catholic Church
Diocese	Kotor
Appointed	22 December 2020
Predecessor	Ilija Janjić
Other posts	Parish priest of the Mostar Cathedral (1998–02) Pastoral Vicar of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno (2002–11) Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011–16) Prish priest of Studenci (2016–2020)
Orders
Ordination	29 June 1986 by Pavao Žanić
Consecration	7 April 2021
Personal details
Born	10 May 1960 Pješivac, PR Bosnia and Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia
Nationality	Croat
Denomination	Catholic

Early life and education

Bishop Štironja was born into a Herzegovinian Croat Catholic family of Stojan and Anica (née Bošković) in Pješvica near Stolac, in the family of a ten children.[1] After graduation from school education, he was admitted to the minor seminary in 1975 in Dubrovnik until 1979, and consequently joined the Major Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna, Sarajevo, in 1980,[2] and was ordained as priest on 29 June 1986 for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trebinje–Mrkan in the Mostar cathedral,[3] after completed his philosophical and theological studies.

Pastoral work

After his ordination Fr. Štironja was enlisted in missions and spent half a year in London, preparing for African missions and learning English (1988). He worked as a missionary in the parish of Kaning’ombe in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Iringa in Tanzania from 1988 until 1992 and after that worked in the Croatian parish in Oakville, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hamilton in Canada from 1993 until 1996. In Padua, he attended liturgical subjects at the Istitut of the pastoral liturgica for two years (1996–1998)[2] and passed the necessary examinations. He also pastorally cared for Croats in Padua and Milan. The bishop invited him to Mostar as parish priest of the cathedral (1998–2002), and then appointed him episcopal vicar for pastoral care (2002–2011). He was the national director of the Papal Missions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He remained in that service until September 2016, and from October 2016 until December 2020 he was a parish priest in Studenci near Ljubuški.[1]

Bishop

On December 22, 2020, he was appointed by Pope Francis as the Diocesan Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kotor.[3]

References

1. "Novoimenovani kotorski biskup don Ivan Štironja: "Stavljam se u Božje ruke. Evo me, Gospodine"". Website of the Croatian Catholic Network (in Croatian). Retrieved 22 December 2020.
2. "Nomina del Vescovo di Kotor (Montenegro)" (in Italian). Official Website of the Holy See. 2020-12-22.
3. "Father Ivan Štironja". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 22 December 2020.