Ratko Perić

Family and education

Ratko Perić was born in the village of Tuk, in the municipality of Rovišće, near Bjelovar in present-day Croatia, where his parents, Grgo and Anica née Raguž, moved from Rotimlja near Stolac. He was baptised on 5 February 1944 in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Rovišće. The family moved back to Rotimlja in 1946. There, Perić enrolled at the elementary school in 1951. He received his confirmation in Prenj, Stolac on 23 July 1953 by Andrija Majić, the bishop's delegate. Perić continued his education at the elementary school in Crnići near Čapljina from 1955 until 1959. He graduated from the Zagreb seminary high school. After finishing high school, Perić enrolled at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, where he studied philosophy from 1963 until 1965. After that, he enrolled at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, Italy, where he studied theology from 1965 until 1969. He received a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome with the thesis "The Role of Cardinal Stepinac in Relations Between the Church and the State" in June 1969.

Priesthood

Perić became a deacon in Rome on 13 April 1969. He was ordained a presbyter on 29 June 1969 by Bishop Petar Čule in Prisoje, Duvno. Perić continued his education at the Pontifical Urban University and gained a PhD on 10 December 1971 with the thesis "Meaning of Evangelisation in the Perspective of Anonymous Christianity" under the mentorship of Carlo Molari. He returned to Herzegovina, where he was a parish priest in Trebinje between 1971 and 1974. Simultaneously, he taught general history and the Greek language at the Humanist Gymnasium "Ruđer Bošković" in Dubrovnik from 1972 until 1974. After that, he lectured in ecumenical theology at the Vrhbosna Theology Seminary in Sarajevo from 1974 until 2004 (with breaks). On 7 December 1979, Perić was named rector of the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome in Rome. He later lectured on ecumenical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from 1989 until 1992, and also on Eastern theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology in Zagreb from 1991 until 1992.