Pavao Žanić

Pavao Žanić (20 May 1918 – 11 January 2010) was a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno and apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1980 until his retirement in 1993. Previously, Žanić served as bishop coadjutor of Mostar-Duvno and titular Bishop of Edistania from 1970 until 1980. He also served as apostolic administrator of Dubrovnik from 1988 until 1990.

During Žanić's episcopate, the reports of Marian apparitions in Medjugorje occurred in 1981. Although initially sympathetic towards the visionaries, Žanić became a fierce opponent of the Medjugorje phenomenon. He believed that they were a Franciscan manipulation and a hoax. Žanić created two commissions to evaluate the authenticity of the apparitions, and the commission declared that it could not establish that the events in Medjugorje were supernatural.

In the Herzegovina Affair, a dispute between the Franciscans and the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno, Žanić tried to enforce Romanis Pontificibus, the papal decree on the division of parishes, which rendered that half of the parishes should be given to the diocesan clergy, while the Franciscans would administer another half. The decree met fierce opposition from the Franciscans, which led many of them to be expelled from the Franciscan Order in the 1970s. Žanić had little success in enforcing the decree.

After turning 75 in 1993, Žanić retired and was succeeded by his coadjutor Ratko Perić. He retreated to his native Kaštel Novi, where he died at 81.