On January 8, 2021, after a brief illness, Fr. Frane Šešelja died at the hospital in Zara at the age of ninety. A friar of the Croatian Province of St. Jerome and stationed at the Convent of St. Michel in Zadar, Fr. Frane had been a friar for seventy-one years and a priest for fifty-six.
On 26 December 1931, Fr. Frane was born into a large Catholic family in Zaglav (Dugi Otok), the first of ten children of father Mate and Mother Zorka, born Čuka. He spent four years of elementary school in his birthplace. He attended middle school (gymnasium) in Zadar and Split and upper middle school (ecclesial classical lyceum) in Split. As an aspirant he was admitted into the Convent of Saint Michael in Zadar in 1945. He made temporary vows in 1950 in the convent on the island of Školjić and solemn vows in 1958 in Zagreb. In 1952 he began to fulfill the obligations of military service in the Yugoslavian navy. In the navy, as a Franciscan candidate for the priesthood and because of faithfulness to the truth, in particular to that regarding the life of the Church in Croatia and the activity of Cardinal Stepinac, martyr, he was unjustly sentenced by the military authorities to five years and six months of hard prison (1953-1958) and one year of limited civil rights after imprisonment. He graduated from the Theological Faculty of Zagreb and was ordained a priest in 1965, also in Zagreb.
He was a parish priest in Kotari, near Zagreb (1965-1968), local minister in the convent on the island of Školijć (1968-1969) and treasurer and confessor in the minor seminary of the province in Odra, Zagreb (1969-1971). From 1972-1993, he was priest-curate for the Croatian emigrants in Wollongong, Australia. In addition to pastoral work, he organized the Croatian school and folklore and cultural groups in the Croatian Catholic Center, which he founded immediately after his arrival in Wollongong. In the same city he led the construction of the first Croatian Catholic church in Australia and the Croatian Catholic Center next to the church.
He returned to Croatia because of serious heart disease and was a meber of the Convent of Saint Michael in Zaglav (1993-2001) and later local minister (2001-2009) and treasurer (2005-2012) of this ancient convent. During his long residence in Zaglav, he thoroughly renovated the convent, the church, the courtyard and the vegetable garden. The work was completed on the occasion of the 550thanniversary of the consecration of the conventual church of Saint Michael. While residing in Zaglav, he also exercised the office of parish priest in Brbinj and Savar (2005-2007). More recently, since 2012, he lived in the Convent of Saint Michael in Zadar. On 26 May 1998, the president of the Republic of Croatia honored him for extraordinary merits in the field of social security and the promotion of social moral values.
Fr. Frane was a simple, discreet, friendly and diligent man, friar and priest, a courageous witness to the Christian faith, truth and his own convictions.
The funeral took place on 13 January 2021, with Fr. Ivo Martinović, minister provincial, presiding. Protective measures were taken due to the new COVID-19 disease. Twenty-two friars from all regions of the province participated. §Also in attendance were the nieces of Fr. Frane, other relatives, fellow citizens of Zaglav, priests from the Archdiocese of Zadar, Franciscan friars (OFM) and religious from Zadar, friends and acquaintances. He was buried in the tomb of the friars of the Province in the city cemetery of Zadar. The friars from the Convent of Saint Michael could not participate because of epidemiological concerns.
The funeral Mass in the convent and parish church of Saint John the Baptist in Zadar was presided over by the minister provincial, assisted by Frs. Petar Grubišić, former minister provincial; M. R. Josip Lenkić, episcopal vicar and by the friars of the province. At the end of Mass, letters of condolence sent from the brothers and sisters of Fr. Frane from Australia and Croatia, from Fr. Ivo Tadić, OFM, priest present for the Croatians in Wollongong and from Mr. Ivan Glasnović, Croatian Consul General in Australia.