{{Short description|Serbian Catholic archbishop (born 1956)}} {{Hungarian name|Német László}} {{About|the Catholic cardinal|people with similar names|László Németh (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Cardinal | honorific-prefix = [[Eminence (style)|His Eminence]] | name = Ladislav Nemet | honorific-suffix = [[Society of the Divine Word|S.V.D.]] | native_name = | native_name_lang = hu | title = [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]], [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Belgrade|Metropolitan Archbishop of Belgrade]] | image = Cardinal Ladislav Nemet Conlcave 2025.png | image_size = | alt = | caption = Német at the [[2025 papal conclave]] | church = [[Catholic]] | province = | metropolis = | archdiocese = [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade|Belgrade]] | see = | elected = | appointed = 5 November 2022 | term = | term_start = | quashed = | term_end = | predecessor = [[Stanislav Hočevar]] | opposed = | successor = | other_post = Cardinal-Priest of [[Santa Maria Stella Maris]] (2024–) <!---------- Orders---------> | ordination = 1 May 1983 | ordained_by = Matiša Zvekanović | consecration = 5 July 2008 | consecrated_by = [[Péter Erdő]] | cardinal = 7 December 2024 | created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Francis]] | rank = [[Cardinal-Priest]] <!---------- Personal details ----------> | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1956|09|07|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Odžaci]], [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|FPR Yugoslavia]] | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) --> | death_place = | buried = | nationality = [[Serbia|Serbian]] | religion = | residence = | parents = | spouse = <!-- or | partner = --> | children = | occupation = | profession = | previous_post = [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Zrenjanin|Bishop of Zrenjanin]] (2008–22) | education = | alma_mater = [[John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin|Catholic University of Lublin]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]])<br>[[Pontifical Gregorian University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]]) | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = Coat of arms of Ladislav Nemet (cardinal).svg | coat_of_arms_alt = <!---------- Other ----------> | other = }} '''Ladislav Nemet''' [[Society of the Divine Word|SVD]] ({{langx|sr|Ладислав Немет}}, {{langx|hu|Német László}}; born 7 September 1956) is a [[Hungarians in Serbia|Hungarian-Serbian]] [[prelate]] of the [[Catholic Church]] who has worked in Serbia as [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade|Archbishop of Belgrade]] since November 2022 and before that as the Bishop of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Zrenjanin|Zrenjanin]]{{efn|Hungarian-language sources identify Zrenjanin as "Nagybecskerek".}} from 2008 to 2022. He is a member of the [[Society of the Divine Word]] (Verbites). He was made a cardinal on 7 December 2024 by [[Pope Francis]].
Before becoming a [[Bishops in the Catholic Church|bishop]] he was educated and filled positions in several countries, studying in [[Poland]] and [[Rome]], working as a missionary and pastor in the [[Philippines]], teaching and collaborating on the [[Foreign relations of the Holy See|Vatican's diplomatic efforts in Austria]], doing pastoral work and teaching in [[Croatia]], and then taking on several assignments in [[Hungary]]. He has credited his time in Catholic countries such as Poland and the Philippines with strengthening him for work in his episcopal assignments where he is part of a religious minority.<ref name=kurir>{{cite interview | access-date = 4 January 2025 | language =hu | url = https://www.magyarkurir.hu/hirek/nemet-laszlo-nagybecskereki-puspok-az-egyhaz-sikeressege-nem-strukturakon-mulik-83565 | date = 19 December 2017 | title = Német László nagybecskereki püspök: Az Egyház sikeressége nem a struktúrákon múlik | trans-title = Bishop László Német of Nagybecskerek: The success of the Church does not depend on structures | interviewer = István Kuzmányi|first= Ladislav |last=Nemet| work =Magyar Kurír}}</ref> He has been the President of the [[International Episcopal Conference of Saints Cyril and Methodius]] since 2016.
==Biography== ===Early years and career=== Ladislav Nemet was born on 7 September 1956 in [[Odžaci]], then in the [[People's Republic of Serbia]], Yugoslavia,<ref name=vatbio/> into a family of ethnic Hungarians, a significant group in the multi-ethnic [[Vojvodina]] province; Nemet refers to himself as a Hungarian.<ref name=synodal>{{cite interview | url = https://megujul.hu/laszlo-nemet-eng/ | access-date = 30 December 2024 | title = László Német: My nomination as cardinal may be related to my commitment to the synodal renewal of the Church | date = 28 October 2024 | interviewer = István Gégény |first= Ladislav|last= Nemet| website =Megújul }}</ref>{{efn|A Hungarian interviewer referred to him as "a Hungarian cardinal, who is one of the pastors serving in another country, Serbia" and in replying Nemet said "I serve in Belgrade as a Hungarian".<ref name=synodal/> A Hungarian publication claimed him with the headline "College of Cardinals Expands With Hungarian Cardinal".<ref name=nemzet>{{cite news | url = https://magyarnemzet.hu/english/2024/12/another-hungarian-cardinal-added-to-the-college-of-cardinals | date = 9 December 2024 | access-date = 30 December 2024 |first= Jánosi | last = Dalma | title =College of Cardinals Expands With Hungarian Cardinal | work = Magyar Nemzet }}</ref>}} His role models were a local priest and an uncle who was secretly a Verbite in Hungary under the Communists, who recommended the order as a path to broader experience, telling Nemet that "a diocese is too small for you".<ref name=noileg>{{cite interview | interviewer = Gagyi Katinka |access-date = 30 December 2024 | url = https://noileg.ro/eletirta/nemet-laszlo-puspok-nagyon-fontos-beszelni-arrol-ami-tortenik-velunk | first= Ladislav |last=Nemet |work = Nőileg | date = 18 December 2021| title= Német László püspök: Nagyon fontos beszélni arról, ami történik velünk }}</ref>
He attended the secondary school Gymnasium Paulinum in [[Subotica]] from 1971 to 1976. He joined the Society of the Divine Word, completed his studies in philosophy and theology in [[Pieniezno]], Poland, and there took his perpetual vows on 8 September 1982.<ref name=vatbio/> He received his master's degree from the [[Catholic University of Lublin]] on 7 April 1983. He was ordained a priest in Odžaci on 17 April 1983.<ref name=vatbio/><ref name=belbio>{{cite web | website = Archdiocese of Belgrade | access-date =30 December 2024 | url = http://kc.org.rs/nadbiskup/ | language = Croatian | title = Mons. Dr. Ladislav Nemet, Beogradski Nadbiskup i Metropolit }}</ref> He spent his first two years as a priest doing pastoral work in Croatia.<ref name=hcbc>{{cite news | url = https://regi.katolikus.hu/cikk.php?h=1042 | access-date = 30 December 2024 | language = hu | date = 23 April 2008 | title = Német László a Nagybecskereki Egyházmegye püspöke | website = Hungarian Catholic Bishops Conference}}</ref>
He studied at the [[Pontifical Gregorian University]] in Rome from 1985 to 1987.<ref name=belbio/> While there he worked in a parish in [[Fiumicino]] and was thrilled to experience a parish of young people with an average age of 35 and with many active community groups of a sort unknown in Yugoslavia.<ref name=noileg/> He worked as a missionary in the Philippines and a chaplain at the [[University of San Carlos]] in [[Cebu City]] from 1987 to 1990,<ref name=belbio/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rappler.com/philippines/visayas/serbian-cardinal-ladislav-nemet-chaplain-university-san-carlos-cebu-city/ |title=Serbia's first cardinal was 'very much loved' chaplain at Cebu university |work=[[Rappler]] |date=October 10, 2024 |access-date=October 10, 2024}}</ref> He later said he learned how the shortage of priests meant that "the laity do much more for the church than the official structures", something "incomprehensible" to Europeans who are "bishop and priest focused".<ref name=noileg/>
He returned to Rome and obtained a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian in 1994.<ref name=belbio/> He spent the next ten years in Austria. He taught dogmatic theology at the Philosophical-Theological College of St. Gabriel and was prefect of the theology students. From 1994 to 2003 he also supported pastoral efforts and was a chaplain at [[Maria Enzersdorf]] in [[Mödling]].<ref name=kaplan>{{cite web | access-date = 8 January 2025 | url = https://www.erzdioezese-wien.at/site/home/nachrichten/article/123714.html | website = Archdiocese of Vienna | language = de | title =Neu ernannter Kardinal Nemet war Kaplan in Niederösterreich | date = 7 October 2024 }}</ref> He worked for the Mission of the Holy See in Vienna at its representation to the United Nations and specialized agencies from 2000 to 2004 and at the same time taught as professor of Jesuit faculty of theology in Zagreb.<ref name=vatbio/><ref name=belbio/>
He was provincial of the Hungarian Province of the Verbites from February 2004 to May 2007.<ref name=hcbc/> During that time he dealt successfully with health problems, including "deep vein thrombosis and lung disease".<ref name=install/> In July 2006 he became Secretary General of the [[Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference]] (HCBC) and taught missiology at the Sapientia College of Theology for Religious Orders in Budapest.<ref name=vatbio/> As secretary of the HCBC, he defended his predecessor's description of the Hungarian government's repression of demonstrators marking the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in the fall of 2006 as "police terror and nihilism".{{efn|His predecessor was András Veres, who was named [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Szombathely|Bishop of Szombathely]] in June 2006.}} He said it was reminiscent of what he witnessed as a student in Poland, when the Jaruzelski government crushed Solidarity and declared a state of emergency. He said he feared the neoliberal market economy ideology was "now beginning to threaten our country".<ref>{{cite interview|url = https://magyarnemzet.hu/archivum-magyarnemzet/2007/01/nemet-laszlo-a-kormanynak-faj-az-igazsag | date= 10 January 2007 |language= hu| title= Német László: A kormánynak fáj az igazság |interviewer = Joó István | trans-title= László Német: The government is hurt by the truth |access-date=18 January 2025| work = Magyar Nemzet }}</ref> During his years in Hungary, he worked as a pastor and celebrated Mass in the Croatian language for members of the Balkan diaspora.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 5 January 2025 | url = https://www.rtv.rs/sr_lat/drustvo/nadbiskup-ladislav-nemet-prvi-svestenik-iz-srbije-uzdignut-u-zvanje-kardinala_1590530.html | date = 7 December 2024 | title = Nadbiskup Ladislav Nemet: Prvi sveštenik iz Srbije uzdignut u zvanje kardinala | trans-title = Archbishop Ladislav Nemet: First priest from Serbia elevated to the rank of cardinal | publisher = Radio-televizija Vojvodine | language=hr }}</ref> In addition to Hungarian and Serbian, he speaks English, German, Polish, Italian and Croatian.<ref name=vatbio/>
===Bishop=== [[File:Muzlja-birma boy3 (cropped).jpg|180px|thumb|right|Német as bishop in 2009]] On 23 April 2008, [[Pope Benedict XVI]] named him bishop of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Zrenjanin|Zrenjanin]] in Serbia.<ref name=vatbio>{{cite press release | access-date = 7 October 2024 | date = 23 April 2008 | language = it | publisher = Holy See Press Office | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2008/04/23/0269/00620.html | title = Rinunce e Nomine, 23.05.2008 }}</ref>{{efn|The Diocese was erected in 1986 and Nemet became its third bishop. He later noted that his appointment was unusual in that members of his order rarely become bishops. As of December 2022 he was one of only two Verbite bishops in Europe.<ref name=stahlhofen>{{cite interview | work=Vatican News | access-date = 15 January 2025 | url = https://www.vaticannews.va/de/vatikan/news/2022-12/vatikan-kirche-synode-interview-ccee-ladislav-nemet-europa.html | language =de | title = Serbischer Erzbischof: Warum soll Kirche immer gleich bleiben? | interviewer = Stefanie Stahlhofen | date =14 December 2022}}</ref>}} He received his episcopal consecration on 5 July 2008 from Cardinal [[Péter Erdő]], Archbishop of Budapest, with Archbishop [[Juliusz Janusz]], Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary, and Bishop [[László Huzsvár]], his predecessor in Zrenjanin, as co-consecrators.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://eredetimiep.hu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1163:puespoekke-szenteltek-nemet-laszlot&catid=35:hirek-itthon&Itemid=1 | language = hu | access-date = 30 December 2024 | date = 6 July 2008 | title = Püspökké szentelték Német Lászlót | work = eredetimiep.hu }}</ref> The service was conducted principally in Hungarian; the other languages used were Bulgarian, Croatian, German, and Latin.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 5 January 2025 | language=hr| work = Hrvatska riječ | url = https://www.hrvatskarijec.rs/vijest/A17390/Zrenjaninska-biskupija--dobila-novog-biskupa/ | date = 18 July 2008 | title = Zrenjaninska biskupija dobila novog biskupa | trans-title = The Diocese of Zrenjanin has a new bishop}}</ref> Though this meant returning to the region of his birth in Serbia, he said he felt no attachment to it after 33 years away and could happily work anywhere.<ref name=noileg/>
Nemet's diocese had an aging population that was also declining through emigration. He organized the scattered Catholics into a reduced number of parishes with elected parish councils. By 2017 they were staffed by 24 priests who offered Mass in 72 places. Still, confirmations fell from 320 in 2009 to 230 in 2017, when the ratio of baptisms to funerals reached 9 to 14. Nemet focused on multiplying parish activities, guaranteeing that small communities were included, and making personal interaction a priority. He said: "I think it is important for people to feel that they are not living their lives behind God's back." His assessment after almost ten years was that cooperation between clergy and laity remained weak, some clergy continued "feudal patterns", and the laity, still "almost invisible", needed to have their role strengthened.<ref name=kurir/> He also organized a diocesan synod between 2017 and 2021, well before Pope Francis{{emdash}}Nemet later pointed out{{emdash}}undertook his program for synods throughout the Church.<ref name=synodal/><ref name=noileg/>
In April 2011, he was elected to a five-year term as secretary general of the [[International Episcopal Conference of Saints Cyril and Methodius]] (CEICEM),<ref>{{cite news |access-date = 18 January 2025 | url = https://www.vaticannews.va/hr/papa/news/2022-11/papa-franjo-imenovanje-beograd-nadbiskup-ladislav-nemet.html | work = Vatican News | language = Croatian | title = Mons. Ladislav Német novi je beogradski nadbiskup metropolit | trans-title= Monsignor Ladislav Német is the new Metropolitan Archbishop of Belgrade | date= 5 November 2022}}</ref> which comprises Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. In that capacity he participated in his first Vatican synod, the Synod on the New Evangelization, in October 2012, where he was chosen relator of the German-language working group.<ref>{{cite web | url =https://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_25_xiii-ordinaria-2012/02_inglese/b23_02.html | access-date = 18 January 2025 | title = Synod Bulletin No. 23 | date = 19 October 2012 | publisher = Holy See Press Office }}</ref>
He represented CEICEM at the second year of the Synod of Bishops on the Family in October 2015.<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Holy See Press Office | access-date = 18 January 2025 | date = 15 September 2015 | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2015/09/15/0676/01469.html | title = Elenco dei Partecipanti, 15.09.2015 | language =it }}</ref>{{efn|Nemet only learned he was a delegate in July 2015,<ref name=family>{{cite interview |interviewer= Szöszill Kovács | url = https://www.catholic-zr.org.rs/a-csalad-hivatasa-es-misszioja-az-egyhazban-es-a-mai-vilagban/ | website = Diocese of Zrenjanin | title = A család hivatása és missziója az egyházban és a mai világban | access-date = 18 January 2025 |date= 27 December 2015 | trans-title =The vocation and mission of the family in the church and in today’s world | language = hu }}</ref> apparently as a late substitution for CEICEM president Archbishop [[Zef Gashi]], who had attended the 2014 Synod. Gashi turned 75 in December 2013.}} He thought it important that the Synod discussed the increasing challenges of interfaith marriage, cultures where trial marriages and polygamy were the norm, the legal recognition granted to partnerships the Church does not consider marriage, and the challenges of widowhood and single parenting. He welcomed a new emphasis on human relationships that might allow some living outside the Church's norms to participate in the life of the Church, and the focus on the longevity of relationships, which is critical for children, despite the pressures of economic dislocation and relocation. He praised efforts to protect women from abuse and to value their social role, while objecting to the promotion of same-sex parenting and denying children recognition as boys and girls.<ref name=family/>
He was elected to a five-year term as president of CEICEM in 2016<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/sq/kisha/news/2021-06/perfundon-asambleja-38-te-konferences-ipeshkvnore-cirili-metodi.html |title=Përfundon Asambleja e 38-të e Konferencës Ipeshkvnore të Shenjtorëve Cirili e Metodi |trans-title=The 38th Assembly of the Episcopal Conference of Cyril and Methodius ends |date=2 June 2021 |work=[[Vatican News]] |language=Albanian}}</ref> and re-elected in 2021.<ref name=vatbio1/>
In December 2018, Nemet issued a letter about couples living in "unregulated relationships", that is, without the benefit of sacramental marriage. After explaining the origins of marriage and its role in childbearing and instruction in the faith, he affirmed God's love for families "in every wounded situation". He continued: "There are also our fellow human beings who do not consider sacramental marriage important, but who live together and live together as a family in a social sense. We ask them to try to discover the greatness and beauty of sacramental marriage, with all its joy, and to live this opportunity of God's love." Considering those who are divorced and remarried, whose lives are "marked by wounds, fractures and the courageous commitment to a new beginning", he quoted Pope Francis' ''[[Amoris laetitia]]'': "God's grace is at work in their lives, giving them the courage to do good, to care for one another with love, and to be at the service of the community in which they live and work." He concluded by urging such couples to have the courage to consult a pastor about access to Communion, permitted in "special cases, under strict conditions".<ref name=circular>{{cite web | access-date = 4 January 2025 | language=hu | url = https://www.catholic-zr.org.rs/szent-csalad-vasarnapja/ | title = Püspöki körlevél az egyházilag nem rendezett viszonyban élő házastársakkal kapcsolatban | trans-title = Episcopal circular regarding spouses living in an ecclesiastical disordered relationship | date = 30 December 2018 | website = Diocese of Zrenjanin}}</ref>{{efn|The requirements to be met at the outset, he wrote, were "that the couples have been living together for a long time, leading an exemplary life, and that faith and ecclesial community life are important to them".<ref name=circular/>}}
Throughout the winter of 2019/20 he sought medical attention for help with "burnout and depression". He said the experience left him less focused on perfectionism and more frank in conversation, to the astonishment of his priests.<ref name=noileg/>
He was elected to a five-year term as one of two vice-presidents of the [[Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe]] (CCEE) on 25 September 2021.<ref name=ccee>{{cite web | url = https://www.ccee.eu/vice-president/?lang=en | website = CCEE | access-date = 30 December 2024 | title = Vice President H. Em. Card. Ladislav Nemet, S.V.D.}}</ref> He said the CCEE's "greatest challenge" was "to give Europe a new spirituality, a new soul".<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 15 January 2025 | language = de |work=Vatican News| title =CCEE-Vizepräsident Német: 'Europa eine neue Seele geben' | url = https://www.vaticannews.va/de/kirche/news/2021-09/ccee-bischofskonferenzen-rat-vizepraesident-lazlo-nemet.html | date = 27 September 2021}}</ref>
===Archbishop and cardinal=== On 5 November 2022, [[Pope Francis]] appointed him Archbishop of Belgrade.<ref name=vatbio1>{{cite press release | access-date = 7 October 2024 | date = 5 November 2022 | publisher = Holy See Press Office | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2022/11/05/221105b.html | title = Resignations and Appointments, 05.11.2022 }}</ref> He was installed there on 10 December.<ref name=install>{{cite news | access-date = 5 January 2025 | date= 13 December 2022 |url = https://www.ktabkbih.net/hr/vijesti/mons-ladislav-nemet-liturgijskim-cinom-preuzeo-sluzbu-beogradskog-nadbiskupa-i-metropolita/111055 | language = hr | title = Mons. Ladislav Nemet liturgijskim činom preuzeo službu beogradskog nadbiskupa i metropolita | trans-title = Mons. Ladislav Nemet took over the office of Belgrade Archbishop and Metropolitan in a liturgical rite | website =Katolička tiskovna agencija Biskupske konferencije Bosne i Hercegovine}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | access-date = 30 December 2024 | url = https://romkat.ro/2022/12/11/beiktattak-nemet-laszlot-a-belgradi-foegyhazmegye-uj-erseket/ | date = 11 December 2022 | title = László Német, the new archbishop of the Belgrade Archdiocese, was installed | website = Roman Catholic Diocese of Nagybecskerek | language = hu}}</ref> In addition to Catholic prelates from several Eastern European countries, the head of the [[Serbian Orthodox Church]] [[Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch|Patriarch Porfirije]] attended.<ref name=stahlhofen/> He continued as apostolic administrator of Zrenjanin until the installation of his successor.<ref name=install/>
Nemet described the significance of his appointment in terms of Belgrade's political and ethnic history, in that "after 104 years in this building where the archbishop of Belgrade resides, which was previously the embassy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a Hungarian will once again live".<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 17 January 2025 | url =https://www.agensir.it/quotidiano/2022/11/7/serbia-mons-nemet-nuovo-arcivescovo-di-belgrado-ringrazio-il-santo-padre-per-la-fiducia-gratitudine-per-il-predecessore-mons-hocevar/ | language = it | title = Serbia: mons. Nemet nuovo arcivescovo di Belgrado. 'Ringrazio il Santo Padre per la fiducia". Gratitudine per il predecessore mons. Hocevar | date = 7 November 2022 | publisher = Agenzia SIR }}</ref> As he took up his post in Belgrade he assessed the ethnic-religious issues he faced. He dismissed the longstanding dispute between the Catholic Church in Croatia and the Orthodox Church in Serbia as "their problem, not our problem". He said Serbian Catholicism, composed of 70% Hungarian speakers and 30% Slavs of many nations, needed to assert its own identity and discover its potential. He pointed out that the young Roman Catholics of Serbia spoke Serbian and found reliance on liturgical texts in Croatian or Hungarian alienating.<ref name=stahlhofen/>
{{neutrality|date=January 2025|talk=Lack of a neutral point of view - neutrality, advertisement}} Assessing a pan-European synod organized by the CCEE in February 2023, he praised the Germans for their theological tradition and international mission work, declining to criticize their approach to synodality. He noted that their concerns were widely shared, if differently expressed, by other national synods, including those of eastern Europe, which underscored "the tension between pastoral care and teaching" with respect to the status of women in the Church and exclusions based on sexual orientation. He said: "We need to see the suffering person behind every path of life and how much suffering we ourselves cause to people when we hate." Asked specifically about the LGBT community, he said: "I do not understand what we lose if we finally begin to experience without fear the infinite and overflowing, unimaginable love of God for each person." He added that gender theory "is based on real scientific results", it is "now a generally accepted medical fact that not all people are born male or female", that some experience "emotional or hormonal states that differ from the physiological reality that characterizes women and men", and that "these people are children of God just like you or me".<ref name=zarandok>{{cite interview | access-date = 31 October 2024 | url = https://zarandok.ma/nemet-laszlo-svd-szeretnenk-ha-az-egyhaz-mindenkinek-otthona-lenne-es-nem-kozositenenk-ki-embereket/ | language = hu | date = 21 February 2023 | title = Német László SVD: Szeretnénk, ha az egyház mindenkinek otthona lenne, és nem közösítenénk ki embereket | first = Ladislav |last=Nemet|interviewer = Arnold Harasztovics | trans-title= László Német SVD: We would like the church to be a home for everyone, and we would not excommunicate people | work = Zarándok }}</ref>
As president of CEICEM he participated as a delegate in the [[Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops|Synod of Bishops on Synodality]] in 2023<ref>{{cite web | access-date = 3 January 2025 | title = 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 07.07.2023 | date = 7 July 2023 | publisher= Holy See Press Office | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/07/07/230707a.html }}</ref> and 2024.<ref>{{cite web | access-date = 3 January 2025 | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/09/16/240916g.html | publisher = Holy See Press Office | title =Synod24 – 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops – Second Session – List of participants according to title of participation (16 September 2024), 16.09.2024 | date = 16 September 2024 }}</ref>
He assessed the Synod's work enthusiastically for including lay men and women, and he cited its lessons in dialogue and listening, for demonstrating the need for transparency and accountability on the part of bishops. He interpreted its work on the role of women in the Church as making concrete how decentralization will allow "each local church will look at its situation, its culture and its needs, where more can be given to women", even as "different forms of expression" are governed by Rome, which ensures "the principle of unity. He cited the permanent diaconate and "blessings for couples in same-sex relationships" as models, implemented to varying degrees across the Catholic world.<ref name=future>{{cite interview | url = https://english.katholisch.de/artikel/57445-future-cardinal-synod-on-synodality-strengthens-diversity-and-decentralisation | access-date = 9 January 2025 | date = 12 November 2024 | title= Future cardinal: Synod on Synodality strengthens diversity and decentralisation | website= Catholic Church in Germany | interviewer= Mario Trifunovic| first = Ladislav |last=Nemet}}</ref>
When the Vatican offered guidance in December 2023 that allowed for priests to bless same-sex couples, and the reaction from eastern European prelates was largely negative,<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 26 January 2025 | url = https://www.ncronline.org/news/across-eastern-europe-bishops-reject-vaticans-opening-same-sex-blessings | first = Alex | last = Faludy | title = Across Eastern Europe, bishops reject Vatican's opening to same-sex blessings | date = 5 January 2024 | work = National Catholic Reporter}}</ref> Nemet endorsed the initiative. He said there could be no blessing of a same-sex union itself, but that a same-sex couple requesting a blessing meant the world was "discovering truths ... faster than we do on the basis of biblical revelation and tradition".<ref>{{cite news |url =https://www.ncregister.com/news/pope-francis-latest-cardinal-picks | work = National Catholic Register | access-date = 26 January 2025 | title = Snubs and Surprises: Making Sense of Pope Francis' Latest Cardinal Picks | date = 7 October 2024 | first = Jonathan | last = Liedl }}</ref>
On 6 October 2024, Pope Francis announced that he planned to make Nemet a cardinal on 8 December,<ref>{{cite press release | access-date = 6 October 2024 | date = 6 October 2024 | language = it | publisher = Holy See Press Office | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2024/10/06/0774/01532.html | title = Annuncio di Concistoro l'8 dicembre per la creazione di nuovi Cardinali, 06.10.2024 }}</ref> a date that was later changed to 7 December.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 12 October 2024 | url = https://www.ncregister.com/cna/vatican-shares-pope-francis-schedule-for-december-consistory-to-create-cardinals?amp | first = Hannah | last = Brockhaus | date = 12 October 2024 | title = Vatican Shares Pope Francis' Schedule for December Consistory to Create Cardinals | work = National Catholic Register }}</ref> He is the first person from Serbia to be named to the [[College of Cardinals]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://n1info.rs/english/news/belgrade-archbishop-nemet-to-be-appointed-first-cardinal-from-serbia/ |title=Belgrade Archbishop Nemet to be appointed first Cardinal from Serbia |work=[[N1 (TV channel)|N1]] |date=7 October 2024 |access-date=10 October 2024}}</ref>{{efn|He may also be the first cardinal from a country with an Orthodox Christian majority.<ref name=kaplan/>}} He said he thought Pope Francis chose him for his commitment to the synodal process, noting that he had held a diocesan synod in Zrenjanin "before Covid...even before the Pope started the synodal renewal of the universal church".<ref name=synodal/> He also recognized that there would be political reactions to his appointment in the Serbian and Croatian press, both favorable and critical.<ref name=synodal/>{{efn|One Croatian newspaper thought it inappropriate that Nemet was made a cardinal ahead of the archbishop of Zagreb, the traditional representative of the Balkans in the [[College of Cardinals]],<ref name=stepinac/> although the Archbishop emeritus of Zagreb [[Josip Bozanić]] is a cardinal and remains eligible to vote in a papal conclave until March 2029.}} Others tried to read the choice of Nemet as part of a Vatican strategy with respect to the much contested question of canonizing [[Aloysius Stepinac]], Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 to 1960.<ref name=stepinac>{{cite news |language =de | website = Catholic Church in Germany | access-date = 9 January 2025 | url = https://katholisch.de/artikel/56667-zeitung-nach-kardinalsernennung-stepinacs-heiligsprechung-unsicher | date = 10 October 2024 | title = Zeitung: Nach Kardinalsernennung – Stepinacs Heiligsprechung unsicher | trans-title = Newspaper: After Appointment as Cardinal, Stepinac's Canonization Uncertain }}</ref> Nemet's responded that similar nationalist reactions in both Croatia and Serbia did "not correspond at all to the Catholic consciousness", that Francis aimed simply to strengthen the Church in Serbia.<ref name=future/>
On 7 December 2024, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, assigning him as a member of the order of cardinal priests the title of [[Santa Maria Stella Maris]] in [[Ostia (Rome)|Ostia]].<ref>{{cite press release | access-date = 8 December 2024 | date = 7 December 2024 | language = it | publisher = Holy See Press Office | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2024/12/07/0975/01948.html | title = Concistoro Ordinario Pubblico: Assegnazione dei Titoli e delle Diaconie ai nuovi Cardinali, 07.12.2024 }}</ref>
On 11 January 2025, he was named a member of the [[Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity]].<ref>{{cite press release |url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2025/01/11/250111d.html | publisher = Holy See Press Office | date = 11 January 2025 | access-date = 11 January 2025| title= Resignations and Appointments, 11.01.2025}}</ref>
He participated as a [[Cardinal electors in the 2025 papal conclave|cardinal elector]] in the [[2025 papal conclave]] that elected [[Pope Leo XIV]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/scardc3.html| title=Cardinal Electors|date=6 May 2025|publisher=Catholic-Hierarchy.org|language=en|access-date=6 May 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250506193115/https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/scardc3.html|archive-date=6 May 2025|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==See also== * [[Catholic Church in Serbia]] * [[Cardinals created by Pope Francis]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{commonscat}} * [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bnemet.html Bishop Ladislav Nemet, S.V.D. on Catholic Hierarchy] * [http://kc.org.rs/nadbiskup/ Archdiocese of Belgrade biography] {{Cardinals of the Catholic Church}} {{Cardinals created by Francis}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemet, Laszlo}} [[Category:1956 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Odžaci]] [[Category:21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Serbia]] [[Category:Serbian people of Hungarian descent]] [[Category:Divine Word Missionaries Order]] [[Category:Pontifical Gregorian University alumni]] [[Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Benedict XVI]] [[Category:Bishops appointed by Pope Francis]] [[Category:Cardinals created by Pope Francis]]