Grabar-Kitarovic, who is currently conducting her first visit to The Vatican, said that she had spoken with the Pope about the canonisation of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, the social crisis in Croatia and the situation in the world.
"I invited him to visit Croatia. He told me that he knows a lot about Croatia - apart from two of his confessors being Croatians, he also knows many Croatians in the emigrant community in Argentina," Grabar-Kitarovic said.
"The Pope told me that he would very much like to visit Croatia," the President said, adding that she hoped they would "manage to find a date for that."
"I believe that the Croatian people and Croatian citizens would like to welcome him," she underscored.
She spoke about a possible visit by the Pope with the Holy See's State Secretary Pietro Parolin. "He however said that the Holy Father's schedule for next year was very tight," she said.
The President said that they had spoken about the possible forthcoming canonisation of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac.
"Naturally, we spoke about that, the Holy Father told me that he had no doubt about that. However, in the meantime a combined commission with the Orthodox Church has been appointed to investigate some other aspects... simply so that that act is accepted by everyone," she said.
"That's simply something that should have been done long ago because Cardinal Stepinac was truly a holy man," she underscored.
Speaking to Croatian reporters, she said that the talks with the Pope were "very cordial" and that they discussed a lot of topics - the situation in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the situation in the world, the global crisis, the problems faced by Christians and other global security matters.
"We particularly agreed that the social situation in Croatia is a big crisis... when it comes to young people leaving, the demographic problem, ageing population, Croatia dying away, the crisis of the family because young people are leaving... because of the economic situation they cannot start a family," Grabar-Kitarovic said, adding that she asked Pope Francis "to pray for the Croatian state and for all of us, for the Croatian people and for our future."
Later, at the Croatian Embassy to the Vatican, the President decorated Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, a former Vatican foreign minister, with a high state honour for his years-long contribution to Croatia's accession to the European Union and the promotion of friendly relations between Croatia and the Holy See.
Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanic told the press that the meeting between the President and the Pope was "very important."
"That has occurred in history... we can go back as far as Pope John VIII... Croatia has always had a special relationship with the Holy See," Bozanic said. He recalled that this was particularly true with "Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac who was sentenced but did not wish to break those ties."
"Had he agreed to that, he would not have been imprisoned... that means that relations with the Holy See are very important for the Croatian people, as evidenced with the recognition of Croatia - we know what the Holy See did then," Zagreb's Archbishop said.
Cardinal Stepinac (1898-1960) was the head of the Catholic Church in Croatia during World War II. After the war, Communist authorities, in a rigged trial, charged Stepinac with collaborating with the Ustasha regime of the Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945), although he publicly denounced crimes of the Ustasha regime and actively helped provide sanctuary for those persecuted. Subsequently, Stepinac spent five years in prison and nine years under house arrest until he died.