"When I approached the Holy Father after his election as new pope to pay my respects, greet him and express my loyalty, the Pope told me: 'Your Eminence, convey my many greetings to the Croatian people and dear Croatia, which has always been faithful'," Bozanic said.
He added that he had told the Pope that the Croatian people would follow him with love and prayer, to which Benedict XVI answered: "That is what I need the most".
Commenting on the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as new pope, Bozanic said that he was certainly familiar with the Church in Croatia and the Croatian people, and that he was very often close to the Church in Croatia. One of his connections to the Church in Croatia was Franjo Seper, the Croatian cardinal who was Ratzinger's predecessor as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bozanic said.
The Archbishop of Bosnia, Caridnal Vinko Puljic, who participated in the election of the new pope along with Cardinal Bozanic, said that Benedict XVI was "a pope for the present time, a pope the Church needs at the moment."
Puljic believes that the new pope chose the name Benedict XVI for two reasons - because St. Benedict is the patron saint of Europe and because Pope Benedict XV was "a peace builder".