He was born on August 1, 1966 in Đivan (municipality Vrbovec), as the youngest son to Stjepan Šaško († 1997), and Ljubica Pečnjak. He has two older brothers, Milan and Franjo. On the tenth day of the same month he was baptized in the parish church of St. Lawrence in the Lovrečka Varoš parish.
He attended the first four years of primary school in Banova (Branch Elementary School in Vrbovec), and the other four in Vrbovec. After eight years of primary school, in 1981, he entered the Archdiocesan Seminary Minor for Boys in Zagreb.
After completion of his education at the Interdiocese’s secondary school for priests in Zagreb and after graduation in 1985 he completed his military service. In the fall of 1986 he became a member of the theological community in the Archdiocese’s Theological Seminary in Zagreb and started his philosophical and theological studies at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb.
Upon completion of the second year of study, in 1988, he went to Rome, to the Pontifical Institute Germanicum et Hungaricum (where he remained until 1994) and continued his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome which he completed in 1991. That year of his life was significant as he was ordained as a deacon on May 4 in Rome, in the church Il Gesu and beginning of his postgraduate study and specialization in the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of St. Anselmo in Rome.
He was ordained as a priest of the Archdiocese of Zagreb by Cardinal Franjo Kuharić in the Zagreb Cathedral on June 28, 1992. He got his master’s degree on June 10, 1994 under mentorship of Professor Matias Augé. That same year he became a member of the community at the Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome and continued writing his doctoral dissertation.
He remained at the Institute until his return to his homeland in 1996, when he was appointed to the position of an assistant lecturer at the Department of Liturgy of the Catholic Faculty of Theology in Zagreb. A year later, in November 28, 1997, he defended his doctoral thesis in Rome on the subject: Dona, munera, sancta sacrificia – in omnibus… facere digneris: dinamismi pneumatologici del Canone Romano. Ricerca e proposta per una rilettura teologico-liturgica (Mentor: Professor Achille M. Triacca).
WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY AND SCIENTIFIC AND TEACHING CAREER
As of 1996 he is an employee of the Catholic Faculty of Theology of the University of Zagreb. Since then he has been teaching liturgical subjects at the five-year study of theology, the Catechetical Institute and the Alba Vidaković Institute for Church Music, participating in the reorganization of the study, as well as in the introduction of new courses in liturgy.
a) on October 2, 1996 he was elected to the position of an assistant at the Department of Liturgy of the Catholic Faculty of Theology
b) on June 25, 1999 he was elected to the position of an associate senior assistant at the Department of liturgy of CFT;
c) on July 14, 2000 he was promoted to the academic rank of an assistant professor, at the Department of Liturgy, CFT ;
d) on April 26, 2000 he was elected as the Head of the Department of Liturgy, CFT, an office he held for five years;
e) on April 29, 2005 he was promoted to the academic title of an associate professor at the Department of liturgy, CFT
f) on March 29, 2011 he was promoted to the academic title of a senior research associate in the scientific field of human sciences, field of theology;
g) on May 27, 2011 at the meeting of the Faculty Senate of the CFT he was promoted to an academic title of a Professor for a term of five years from the scientific fields of humanities, scientific field of theology and science branch of liturgy at the Department of Liturgy of CFT.
h) on July 5, 2011, the Senate of the University of Zagreb confirmed the election to the academic title Professor (1st election) for a term of five years
SERVICES AT THE CROATIAN BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE (CBC) AND THE ARCHDIOCESE
A) SERVICES AT THE CBC:
a) President of the Bishops’ Commission of CBC for Liturgy (as of November 15, 2012); a member of the Liturgical Council (as of 1997) and Bishops’ Commission (as of 2010 )
b) member of the Bishop’s Commission of CBC for State Relations (as of January 23,2012 )
c) member of the Bishop’s Commission for Pontifical Croatian College of St. Jerome (as of 15, November 2012).
d) president of the CBC’s Committee for Catholic Schools and Ecclesiastical Universities ( from April 3, 2008 to January, 2013)
e) national delegate for international Eucharist congresses as of October 22, 2009
B) SERVICES IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ZAGREB AFTER EPISCOPAL ORDINATION:
a) auxiliary bishop of Zagreb
b) general vicar ( in charge of Karlovac- Gorica and Turopolje archdeaconries ), Vicar for Clergy (in charge of continuous formation of priests)
d) President of the Committee for Liturgy of the Archdiocese of Zagreb
C) OTHER SERVICES
Alongside several duties at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, before his episcopal ordination, he was (and in some still is) a member of various ecclesiastical and secular commissions, committees, boards and councils as follows:
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A member of Croatian section Europäische Gesellschaft für die katholische Theologie;
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A member of the editorial board of Bogoslovska smotra (from 2001 to 2008)
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A member of the Department for Croatian sacral bibliography
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A member of Cathedral College of Prebendaries (from November 22, 2001 to June 26, 2008;
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A collaborator of Vjesnik for the Diocese of Đakovo and Srijem
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A member of the Archdiocesan Committee for Sacral Art of the Archdiocese of Zagreb
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an assistant to the editor-in-chief of yearbook Crkvena kulturna dobra – analecta (published by the Office for Cultural Heritage of the Zagreb Archdiocese), first issue published in 2003
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a member of the Central Commission of the Second Synod of the Archdiocese of Zagreb and member of its Business Board
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a member of the Council of Presbyters and member of its Board of directors
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a member of the Advisory Council of the Archdiocese of Zagreb
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a member of the editorial board of the liturgical-pastoral paper Živo vrelo (as of September 2004)
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in January 2005 was appointed President of the Commission for the Establishment of the Catholic University, and in 2006, after the University was established, the president of Committee of the Catholic University of Croatia and from July 9, 2008 to October 1, 2011 served as a Rector of the Catholic University of Croatia;
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a member-founder of the Association for History of the Archdiocese of Zagreb-Tkalčić
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an expert associate at the Office for Religious Education in schools of the Archdiocese of Zagreb
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participated in the 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (about the Eucharist) in Vatican, in a group of assistants (theological experts) of the Special Secretary of the Synod in October 2005;
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on behalf of the CBC in charge of preparation of liturgical celebrations during all three visits of Pope John Paul II to Croatia (1994, 1998 and 2003);
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was appointed Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Zagreb on June 26, 2008
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was appointed Provost of the Cathedral Chapter of Zagreb on March 5, 2010;
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was President of the Committee for Relations with the City of Zagreb of the Archdiocese of Zagreb till December 2010;
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appointed president of Kršćanska sadašnjost on January 4, 2011
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a member of the Business Board of the Catholic University of Croatia;
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in charge of liturgical issues during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Zagreb, Croatia on June 4 and 5, 2011.
