Ivan Štironja

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.

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]

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