Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic met in Mostar with retiring Catholic bishop Ratko Peric and his successor Petar Palic who will be officially promoted to the post of the new Mostar-Duvno Bishop at a ceremony on Monday.

“I know Monsignor Petar Palic very well as he is the General Secretary of the Bishop’s Conference of the Republic of Croatia,” Plenkovic told reporters.

“I wish to express my deepest respect to bishop Ratko Peric. He left his enormous mark here. The current transition is very important to Catholics in this diocese and it’s also important for the cohesion and the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.