Requiem At St. Stephen's Cathedral: Austria Bids Farewell To Benedict XVI.

Local bishops celebrated the service to the late Pope – Cardinal Schönborn recalled in his sermon the 49 years of personal acquaintance and friendship with the deceased – loved by the people, criticized by the media

Vienna (KAP) – With a solemn requiem, the Catholic Church and official Austria bid farewell to Pope Benedict XVI on Monday evening at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. taken. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn presided over the Requiem, who at the beginning of the service recalled that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had conducted the Requiem for Cardinal Franz König in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in 2004. In 2007 he was Pope Benedict XVI. he returned to Austria and celebrated a festive service in the cathedral. At the requiem, prayers were offered for the deceased, but also for peace in Ukraine, for Christian unity and for all the world’s religions to coexist respectfully.

Ahead of the state deputies, federal president Alexander Van der Bellen participated in the service, accompanied by his wife Doris Schmidauer. Bishops Manfred Scheuer, Alois Schwarz, Wilhelm Krautwaschl, Ägidius Zsifkovics and Werner Freistetter, Auxiliary Bishops Franz Scharl, Stephan Turnovszky and Anton Leichtfried and the Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference, Peter Schipka, concelebrated with the Archbishop of Vienna. The Apostolic Nuncio to Austria, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, and Nunciature Counselor Kevin Randall also celebrated. Among the celebrants was the auxiliary bishop of Vienna, Helmut Krätzl. The president of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Franz Lackner, had to cancel at the last minute due to illness.

On the part of Christian ecumenism came Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Arsenios (Kardamakis), Old Catholic Bishop Heinz Lederleitner, Evangelical Church Councilor Ingrid Bachler and Syriac Orthodox Corepiscopos Emanuel Aydin; also Reformed State Superintendent Thomas Hennefeld, Anglican Canon Patrick Curran and Methodist Father Esther Handschin. Also present were the president of the Islamic Faith Community, Ümit Vural, and the vice president of the Buddhist Religious Society, Erika Erber.

Federal Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP), responsible for the government’s churches and religious communities, now represents the Federal Chancellor. Also present were President of the Second National Council Doris Bures (SPÖ), President of the Federal Council Günter Kovacs (SPÖ), Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) and President of the Supreme Court Elisabeth Lovrek.

“Loved by the People”

Cardinal Schönborn paid homage to the late Pope with very personal words. In his sermon, he looked back on 49 years of personal acquaintance and friendship with the deceased. According to Schönborn, a meeting in Rome in the 1980s showed him how much the common people valued and even loved the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Schönborn emphasized Joseph Ratzinger’s “simplicity, attentiveness and friendliness”. In no other congregation was there such a good climate as in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger was an impressive personality as a person and as a superior, with extraordinary philanthropy, a good sense of humor, an impressive intelligence and competence, but who never came across as arrogant or arrogant.

The media’s devastating judgment of Cardinal Ratzinger was even more incomprehensible to anyone who knew him personally. Many took offense at him because, as prefect, he supposedly took a substantial U-turn from an open-minded reformer to a conservative who held back the progress of the Second Vatican Council. As Schönborn emphasized, in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was primarily concerned with presenting the Church’s teachings in a positive light and less with blaming others.

The question of truth polarized Ratzinger the most, Schönborn continued. Pope Benedict/Joseph Ratzinger was convinced “that the truth can illuminate and illuminate the seeker”. That this is possible is part of human dignity. Benedict was equally convinced that reason and faith needed each other. According to Schönborn, many of his writings have always been a guide for some and an impetus for others. For example, he referred to the letter “Dominus Iesus” from the year 2000, which deals mainly with the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the mediator of salvation.

Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. he was also convinced that a dialogue between religions would only be fruitful “if you clearly articulate your own beliefs and share them with others”.

The deceased also left a great theological work focused on the relationship between politics and ethics, conscience and responsibility, which has not yet been sufficiently worked on. In this context, the cardinal referred to two important speeches by Benedict XVI in London before the British Parliament and in Berlin before the German Bundestag. In London Benedict emphasized the role of conscience in politics, in Berlin he addressed the issue of natural law and human dignity in political action.

“Listen to each other and learn from each other”

Schönborn concluded his sermon with another personal recollection of the Ratzinger student group’s last meeting with Pope Benedict in August 2012 at Castel Gandolfo. When discussing current developments in ecumenism, participants were saddened to have noticed a kind of stagnation. But Benedict XVI. concluded the deliberations with the words: “Isn’t ecumenism about listening to each other and learning from each other what it means to be a Christian today?!”

According to Schönborn, he had already anticipated Pope Francis’ central synodal concern. Furthermore, Benedict, like Francis, is clearly convinced that they are committed to the service of unity, not just for Christians, but for the entire human family. In this context, Schönborn also recalled the joint “Declaration on the Universal Brotherhood of Man” by Pope Francis and Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb in .

More: https://www.kathpress.at/goto/meldung/2223752

Questions and contact:

cat press
Dr Paul Wuthe
(01) 512 52 83
[email protected]
https://www.kathpress.at