Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, February 24 (CP) – Churchgoers were shocked on a particular Sunday, when they saw priest Ivan Cucek, a convicted paedophile deliver mass in a church in the centre of Zagreb.

Priest Ivan Cucek was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years for fondling 11 and 12-year-old girls, the sentence handed down in 2004. The ruling also stated that Cucek was a sick man and was no longer in contact with children.

Despite the church authorities forcing him even before he was sentenced to leave his post as Sestine priest, he refused and only left when he was convicted of committing 16 offences of lewd acts.

Cucek was housed at the home for retired priests at Zagreb’s Kaptol.

However, recently Cucek appeared at a church in the centre of Zagreb, leading mass, the official church authorities’ explanation being that he was filling in for the local parish priest and this was a ‘one off’, as he has retired.

Some have commented on this by saying it was obvious that the go-ahead for Cucek to serve mass had been given from higher church authority, as his three-year suspension had expired.

Croatia has recently waged a wide operation against paedophiles and so far the homes of more than 180 suspected paedophiles were raided.