Dražen Kutleša (; born 25 September 1968) is ženKutleša Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church who became Archbishop of Zagreb in April 2023 after two months as archbishop coadjutor. He was the archbishop of Split-Makarska from 2022 to 2023 after serving as bishop of Poreč and Pula from 2012 to 2020.
A native of Tomislavgrad in Herzegovina, Kutleša was raised in the nearby paternal village of Prisoje, where he attended an elementary school. After deciding to become a priest and joining the seminary, he attended a high school in Dubrovnik and then the College of Theology of Vrhbosna in Sarajevo beginning in 1987. He graduated in 1993 after spending his final academic year in Bol due to war. The same year, he was ordained as a deacon and a priest and served for two years as a chaplain in Mostar. He continued his education in 1995 at the Pontifical Urban University, studying canon law, eventually earning his Ph.D. in 2001. From 2000, he served as the secretary of the bishop of Mostar-Duvno, and from 2003, he was a parish administrator in Grude and a lecturer of law at the Theological Institute of Mostar. In 2006, Kutleša became a member of the Congregation for Bishops and in 2011, an associate of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The same year, he was appointed as the bishop coadjutor of Poreč and Pula; after the resignation of Ivan Milovan in 2012, he became the bishop. He served there for eight years until 2020, when he was appointed the archbishop coadjutor of Split-Makarska. In 2022, Kutleša succeeded Marin Barišić as the archbishop of Split-Makarska, became a member of the Dicastery for Bishops, and was elected as the president of the Episcopal Conference of Croatia. Serving as the archbishop of Split-Makarska for only ten months, Kutleša was appointed the archbishop coadjutor of Zagreb in 2023 and succeeded Josip Bozanić that year.
Early life
Dražen Kutleša was born in Duvno, present-day Tomislavgrad, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to father Krešo and mother Danica née Ćurić, both from the village of Prisoje. Because his father was, like many men from his region, a gastarbeiter (guest worker) in Austria and West Germany, Dražen and his brother Grgo were raised by their mother. He was christened in the village church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Known as a lively child, he attended the village elementary school from 1975 to 1983. His mother initially opposed his decision to become a priest. Nevertheless, Bishop Pavao Žanić accepted him into the seminary and sent him to Ruđer Bošković Gymnasium in Dubrovnik, where he studied from 1983 until graduation in June 1987. In 1987, Kutleša enrolled at the College of Theology of Vrhbosna in Sarajevo, spending his last academic year of 1992–93 in Bol on the isle of Brač. At the time, the College of Theology of Vrhbosna was a branch of the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb. He graduated with the thesis Od konstitucije 'Romanos Pontifices' (1881.) do dekreta 'Romanis Pontificibus' (1975.) () under the mentorship of Ratko Perić. His brother Grgo joined the Croatian Army during the Croatian War of Independence and lives in Split, Croatia, where he works for the Croatian Ministry of Defence.