Bernard Bober

Bernard Bober is a Slovak catholic prelate. He is the Archbishop of Archdiocese of Košice, chair of the Conference of Slovak Bishops and Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University in Ružomberok.

Biography

Bernard Bober was born on 3 November 1950 in the village of Zbudské Dlhé in Czechoslovakia. He was ordained priest on 8 June 1974 in the St Martin's Cathedral in Bratislava. Following his ordination, he served as a chaplain in the towns of Humenné, Snina and Zborov. From 1978 to 1990 he was the parish priest in the village of Kecerovce. In 1991 he was named the vicar general of the Diocese of Košice.
On 29 December 1992 Bober was named Auxiliary Bishop of Košice and Titular Bishop of Vissalsa by the Pope [John Paul II]. He was consecrated on 30 January 1993 at the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth in Košice by the Cardinal Jozef Tomko and co-consecrated by the Bishop of Košice Alojz Tkáč and Archbishop of Trnava Ján Sokol. On 4 June 2010, he succeeded Tkáč as the head of the Archdiocese of Košice.
On 10 October 2022, Bober replaced Archbishop of Bratislava Stanislav Zvolenský as the head of the Conference of Slovak Bishops.
In addition to Church offices, Bober also serves as the Grand Chancellor of the Catholic University in Ružomberok.
In 2025, Bober claimed that there is a lack of objective evaluation of the role of the fascist World War II era leader Jozef Tiso. His claim was widely criticized by Slovak historians.
In November 2025 at the request of Pope Leo XIV, the Portuguese priest and DJ Padre Guilherme played a live set outside the Cathedral of St. Elizabeth to mark Bober's 75th birthday.