Vinko Puljić (born September 8, 1945) is a Cardinal Priest of the Roman Catholic Church in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and is the Archbishop of Vrhbosna.
He has had the title of cardinal since 26 November 1994. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
EARLY LIFE
The twelfth of thirteen children, Vinko Puljić was born in Banja Luka, during the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Ivan and Kaja Puljić. His mother died when he was three-years-old, and his father then remarried. He attended the minor seminary in Zagreb; a local Trappist monk sold his motorbike to help Vinko's father afford board. He then studied philosophy and theology at the major seminary of Đakovo.
PRIESTHOOD
Puljić was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Stjepan Bauerlein on June 29, 1970, and then served as a chaplain in the Diocese of Banja Luka until 1973, whence he became an official of the diocesan curia. He was a parish priest in Sasina from June to November 1973, and in Ravska from 1973 to 1978. In 1978, he was named spiritual director of the minor seminary of Zadar.
During this time, he also served as a confessor at a Benedictine monastery and organized spiritual retreats for priests, seminarians, and women religious.In 1987, he returned to the Diocese of Banja Luka, where he served as a parish priest in Gradiška. He was later transferred to Sarajevo in 1990 as vice-rector of its major seminary.
EPISCOPAL CAREER
On November 19, 1990, Puljić was appointed the sixth Archbishop of Vrhbosna by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on January 6, 1991 from John Paul II himself, with Archbishops Giovanni Battista Re and Justin Francis Rigali serving as co-consecrators, at St. Peter's Basilica.
Following the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, Puljić became involved in helping the thousands of refugees and exiles and advocated human rights.
Puljić was created Cardinal Priest of S. Chiara a Vigna Clara by John Paul II in the consistory of November 26, 1994. On October 18, 2001, he was invested as bailiff of the Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Puljić was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave, which selected Pope Benedict XVI. He served as President of the Bishops' Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1995 to 2002, and again from 2005 to the present.
He has been an activist for Croatian Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
