Stanislav Zvolenský elected to lead Slovak Bishops’ Conference

Bratislava Archbishop and Metropolitan Stanislav Zvolenský was elected on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to lead the Slovak Bishops’ Conference for the next four years. Slovakia’s bishops chose him by secret ballot during their 115th plenary meeting in Badín, in the Banská Bystrica district.¹²³

A four-year mandate

The bishops decided the conference’s leadership through a secret vote at the plenary session. Reports from TASR and Hospodárske noviny confirmed both the result and the four-year duration of Zvolenský’s mandate, while Pravda also reported that he would head the conference for the coming four years.¹²³

Zvolenský enters the post as the archbishop and metropolitan of Bratislava. The Slovak Bishops’ Conference is the body through which the country’s bishops carry out certain pastoral responsibilities jointly, and its president serves as the conference’s statutory representative.¹²

The vote was held at the conference’s 115th plenary meeting in Badín. The gathering provided the setting for the bishops to determine who would represent and lead their national conference during the next term.¹²

Succession from Bernard Bober

Zvolenský succeeds Bernard Bober, the archbishop of Košice. Postoj reported that Bober, aged 75, could not be re-elected and had submitted his resignation to the pope. The outlet described the result as Zvolenský’s return to the leadership of the bishops’ conference.⁴

According to Postoj, the conference has had five presidents. František Tondra, a former diocesan bishop of Spiš, was its first president and led it on two occasions. Rudolf Baláž, formerly bishop of Banská Bystrica, headed the conference from April 1994 until August 2000.⁴

Conference leadership

The president represents an organisation encompassing Slovakia’s bishops and their shared pastoral work. Although the office belongs to the conference’s internal structure, Postoj reported that the wider public often views its holder as the country’s leading representative of the Catholic Church.²⁴

The plenary meeting also resulted in appointments to the conference’s permanent council. Ján Kuboš, an auxiliary bishop of Spiš, and Pavol Šajgalík, bishop of the Ordinariate of the Armed Forces and Armed Corps of Slovakia, were appointed to that body.¹²