in 1946, but had been vacant from its conception until the 1953 consistory. However, Stepinac was unable to travel to Rome to be invested with the title, therefore, it remained vacant until 1959 when it became a diaconate. On 21 December 2020, the title's current holder, Francesco Monterisi, inaugurated a plaque placed at the church to honor Stepinac. Death and canonisation controversies In 1953, two American specialists, Dr. John H. Lawrence and Dr. John Ruzic, flew to Yugoslavia and diagnosed Stepinac with polycythemia, a disease marked by an increase in red blood cells. Stepinac was also treated for the disease by internationally known German hematologist, Dr. Ludwig Heilmeyer. On 10 February 1960 at the age of 61, Stepinac died of a thrombosis. Pope John XXIII held a requiem mass for him soon after at St Peter's Basilica. He was buried in Zagreb during a service in which the protocols appropriate to his senior clerical status were, with Tito's permission, fully observed. Cardinal Franz König was among those who attended the funeral. Yugoslav government relations with the Vatican improved after Stepinac's death, and developed further after the Second Vatican Council of 1962–65. Diplomatic relations were restored in 1966. Notwithstanding that Stepinac died peacefully at home, he quickly became a martyr in the view of his supporters and many other Catholics. In 1998, traces of arsenic were detected in Stepinac's bones, leading many to believe he had been poisoned by his captors.Johnston, Bruce: Pope to beatify archbishop murdered by Tito, The Daily Telegraph, 15 May 1998 But administration of arsenic along with bloodletting was a standard treatment for polycythemia in the early 1950s. Meštrović did not return to Yugoslavia until 1959 and upon his return met again with Stepinac, who was then under house arrest. Meštrović went on to sculpt a bust of Stepinac after his death which reads: "Archbishop Stepinac was not a man of idle words, but rather, he actively helped every person─when he was able, and to the extent he was able. He made no distinctions as to whether a man in need was a Croat or a Serb, whether he was a Catholic or an Orthodox, whether he was Christian or non-Christian. All the attacks upon him be they the product of misinformation, or the product of a clouded mind, cannot change this fact." In 1970, Glas Koncila published a text on Stepinac taken from L'Osservatore Romano which