"Slovenia is in serious crisis. This crisis is multifaceted; it's not just the crisis of the Maribor archdiocese. With joint effort, we will try to bring in those values that unite us, build the community, and also bring hope. Because if there's one thing we need today, it's hope and the light," said Maribor's new archbishop after his inauguration and explained that he would need time to accept his new mission inwardly, too, and to prepare for it spiritually. Cvikl is expected to give an official statement in 10 days.

Steward of Maribor Archdiocese since 2010
Lojze Cvikl was born on 19th July 1955. He joined the Jesuit order in 1974 and studied in Ljubljana, Turin, Rome and Brussels.

The late Ljubljana's archbishop and Metropolitan Alojzij Šuštar appointed him the first principal of the Jeglič Dormitory for Boarding Students at the St. Stanislaus Institute in Šentvid, where he became the first teacher of catechesis and worked as the institute's assistant principal for a year. In 1995 he was designated as the provincial of the Slovenian Jesuit province, and a year later he became the president of the alliance that connected the higher heads of Slovenian orders.

During his presidency, the alliance was renamed into the Slovenian conference of monastical institutions. In 2001 Cvikl became the rector of the Pontificium Collegium Russicum in Rome. He returned to Slovenia in 2010 and was named as the steward of the Maribor Archdiocese.

The Maribor Archdiocese had lost its archbishop in late July 2013 and has been without one until now. The reason for this was simultaneous resignations offered to Pope Francis by the then Ljubljana's archbishop Anton Stres and Maribor's archbishop Marjan Turnšek due to their roles in business deals that led to a financial collapse of the Maribor Archdiocese.

G. C., MMC; translated by K. Z.