“Let’s not let our country, our time, be talked about badly,” urged the Archbishop of Vienna in his annual New Year’s Eve speech on ORF television. The speech took place before the news of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. been recorded.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn urged people to start the new year “with trust, gratitude and trust in God”, despite all the negative headlines and worries that the past year has brought. “Let’s not let our country, our time, be talked about badly,” urged the Archbishop of Vienna in his annual New Year’s Eve speech on ORF television. The speech took place before the news of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. been recorded.
Even if the war in Ukraine and its consequences in the form of rising prices and inflation affect everyone, even if the refugee and climate crisis makes many look to the future “powerless and full of worries”, this does not must overlook the many good things disguise what is happening and give reasons for confidence, says Schönborn.
“Life cannot be planned”
The hectic last two years, marked by countless crises such as the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine, would have reminded him of his mother’s phrase: “Life cannot be planned”, said the archbishop of Vienna. First, the pandemic “messed up the whole world”, claimed many lives and promoted social divisions in the course of the vaccination debate; Then, a “terrible war” broke out on European soil, which claimed “horrible victims”, turned millions of people into refugees and now, with the “systematic destruction of infrastructure”, presented people with insurmountable challenges. The climate crisis is also becoming a “dramatic reality” that people feel powerless to face.
He was personally consoled by the well-known saying of the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): “But where there is danger, saving power also grows.” As a consolation he experiences, for example, the great voluntary commitment in Austria, in which cohesion and solidarity are manifested. In this context, he also thinks of the approximately 30,000 women and men in neighboring countries who provide 24-hour care for the elderly and the sick.
Schönborn commented on the death of the pope emeritus in an ORF “time in the picture” special. Benedict XVI humanized the papacy with his resignation in 2013. The resignation was a “step of great importance for future generations,” he said. And he added that he personally understood this move by the Pope, who saw his powers wane.
According to Schönborn, the Pope’s theological work, grouped in 15 volumes so far, is a “masterpiece of theology”. When asked about abuse in the church, Schönborn recalled the “Groer Cause”. The Vatican Curia slowed down when it came to investigating Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. However, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was determined to support such investigations and gave a clear and innovative signal by establishing a separate court for cases of serious abuse at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Benedict XVI I also never hesitated to admit my own mistakes, “and that is an honor for him”, says Schönborn: “Benedict XVI always defended the truth, in theology, in society and also in relation to abuses”.
(APA)