Today, members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina are on an official visit to the Vatican, where they will meet with Pope Leo XIV, as well as with the Secretary for Relations with Other States and International Organizations of the State Secretariat of the Holy See, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.
This visit comes after Pope Leo XIV. back in November of last year, he canceled individual audiences with the members of the BiH Presidency and invited them to a joint meeting in the Vatican.
Namely, all three members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a short period of time individually requested admission to the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Željka Cvijanović was the first to receive a confirmed appointment, but that meeting was subsequently canceled after both Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić sent their own requests for an audience.
The administration of the Holy See then decided that there would be no individual meetings and that the talks could be held exclusively in the form of a joint audience.
The Apostolic Nunciature in Sarajevo then sent an official letter to the Presidency of BiH stating that “the requests of all three members of the state leadership were received in a very short period of time”, which is why the previously scheduled audience was cancelled.
The letter also stated that the Vatican invites Cvijanović, Bećirović and Komšić to jointly choose a date for the meeting in the period between December and January.
“After receiving in a very short time the requests of each of the three members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for a meeting with the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, the pontifical audience that was scheduled for the benefit of His Eminence Mrs. Željka Cvijanović for November 7 will not be held. The Secretariat of the Holy See kindly invites the three distinguished members of the Presidency to choose a date in December – January for organizing a joint audience”, stated in the official notification provided by the Apostolic nunciature.
This is the first time after 2018 that the Vatican insists on a joint meeting of all members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The last such meeting was held at a time when the functions of members of the Presidency were held by Dragan Čović, Mladen Ivanić and Bakir Izetbegović, writes Klix.
