14 srp Letter of condolence to Dr. José María Simón Castellví, the Past-President of World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations, FIAMC, on the occasion of the death of Archbishop Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for Health C

Zagreb, July 13, 2016

Dear and esteemed José María,

With great sadness and Christian compassion, we received the news today that Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, died in the Lord on July 12, 2016.

The Croatian Catholic Medical Society (CCMS) had just sent him an invitation to join us on October 15 of this year in Zagreb and celebrate a Mass in commemoration of the 25th anniversary our founding.

Unfortunately, the Lord wanted us to celebrate this anniversary without him. We were so looking forward to seeing him. He had promised that he would return when we had the honor of hosting him on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of our society. In fact, on that occasion, he spent several days in Zagreb, from October 13 to 16, 2011, and took the opportunity to become acquainted with the activities of the Croatian Catholic Medical Society. The highlight of his visit was a Mass that Msgr. Zimowski concelebrated with Msgr. Valentin Pozaić, Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb and Spiritual Advisor to the CCMS, and the other spiritual advisors to the branches of the CCMS on the Feast of St. Luke, the patron saint of our society, in the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Zagreb.

As Msgr. Zimowski was also your collaborator for many years and your spiritual advisor when you served as the President of the FIAMC, please accept our sincere expressions of Christian compassion on his death. We believe that the news of his passing was received in your family, as well as among Catholic physicians throughout Catalonia and Spain, with great sorrow. We also mourn the profound loss of a man who was a devoted priest and spiritual advisor, and who also had great compassion for us Croats, as we suffered similar persecutions for the faith under the communist regime that devoured his Poland and our Croatia. For the Zagreb Branch of the CCMS, the death of Msgr. Zimowski is the loss of a very close spiritual advisor, colleague and friend. Our journey together with him on this earth is over but we live in the hope of being reunited in the Lord.

In this hope, please accept our sincere expressions of Christian compassion.

Rok Čivljak, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice President of the CCMS

Prof. Danica Galešić Ljubanović, M.D., Ph.D.
President of the Zagreb Branch of the CCMS

Fr. Draženko Tomić, Ph.D.
Spiritual Advisor to the Zagreb Branch of the CCMS

Zagreb, October 14, 2011
A meeting with Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski (center), President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, with officials from Croatian medical associations and institutions, at the headquarters of the Croatian Medical Association in Zagreb: Prof. Danica Galešić Ljubanović, M.D., Ph.D. (Vice President of the Zagreb Branch of the CCMS), Academician Željko Reiner, M.D., Ph.D. (President of the Croatian Academy of Medical Sciences), Franjo Turalija, M.D. (President of the CCMS), Prof. Željko Metelko, M.D., Ph.D. (President of the Croatian Medical Association), Academician Davor Miličić, M.D., Ph.D. (Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb), Morana Brkljačić, M.D., Ph.D. (Spokesperson of the CCMS), and Msgr. Valentin Pozaić, Ph.D. (Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb and Spiritual Advisor to the CCMS and the European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations—FEAMC)

Marija Bistrica, October 16, 2011
A visit by Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, to the Croatian National Shrine of Our Lady of Bistrica. Officials of the CCMS were photographed with Msgr. Zimowski at the altar of the National Shrine below a painting of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, in the place where Cardinal Stepinac was beatified by St. John Paul II on October 3, 1998. Pictured are Ivan Ćelić, M.D. (General Secretary of the CCMS), Msgr. Valentin Pozaić, Ph.D. (Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb and Spiritual Advisor to the CCMS and FEAMC), Msgr. Zlatko Koren (Rector of the Croatian National Shrine of Our Lady of Bistrica), Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, Franjo Turalija, M.D. (President of the CCMS), and Rok Čivljak, M.D. (President of the Zagreb Branch of the CCMS)