Requiem in St. Stephen’s Cathedral: Austria took leave of Benedict XVI.
Local bishops celebrated service for the deceased Pope – Cardinal Schönborn looked back in his sermon on 49 years of personal acquaintance and friendship with the deceased – loved by the people, panned by the media
Vienna (KAP) – With a solemn requiem, the Catholic Church and official Austria said farewell to Pope Benedict XVI on Monday evening in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. taken. Cardinal Christoph Schönborn presided over the Requiem, and the entrance to the service recalled that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger conducted the Requiem for Cardinal Franz König in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in 2004. In 2007 he was Pope Benedict XVI. came back to Austria and had celebrated a festive service in the cathedral. At the requiem, prayers were made for the deceased, but also for peace in Ukraine, for Christian unity and for all religions in the world to live together respectfully.
At the head of the state representatives, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, accompanied by his wife Doris Schmidauer, took part in the service. The Bishops Manfred Scheuer, Alois Schwarz, Wilhelm Krautwaschl, Ägidius Zsifkovics and Werner Freistetter, the Auxiliary Bishops Franz Scharl, Stephan Turnovszky and Anton Leichtfried and the Secretary General of the Bishops’ Conference, Peter Schipka, concelebrated with the Archbishop of Vienna. The Apostolic Nuncio in Austria, Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, and Nunciature Counselor Kevin Randall also celebrated. Among those celebrating was the auxiliary bishop of Vienna, Helmut Krätzl. The chairman of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Franz Lackner, had to cancel at short notice due to illness.
The Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan Arsenios (Kardamakis), the Old Catholic Bishop Heinz Lederleitner, the Evangelical Church Councilor Ingrid Bachler and the Syrian-Orthodox chorepiscopos Emanuel Aydin came on the side of Christian ecumenism; also the Reformed State Superintendent Thomas Hennefeld, the Anglican canon Patrick Curran and the Methodist Father Esther Handschin. The President of the Islamic Faith Community, Ümit Vural, and the Vice President of the Buddhist Religious Society, Erika Erber, also attended.
Federal Minister Susanne Raab (ÖVP), who is responsible in the government for church and religious communities, came to represent the Federal Chancellor. Also present were the Second National Council President Doris Bures (SPÖ), Federal Council President Günter Kovacs (SPÖ), Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) and the President of the Supreme Court Elisabeth Lovrek.
“Loved by the People”
Cardinal Schönborn paid tribute to the late Pope in very personal words. In his sermon he looked back on 49 years of personal acquaintance and friendship with the deceased. According to Schönborn, an encounter in Rome in the 1980s showed him how much ordinary people valued, even loved, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Schönborn emphasized the “simplicity, attentiveness and friendliness” of Joseph Ratzinger. In no other congregation was there such a good atmosphere as in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger was an impressive personality both as a person and as a manager, with an extraordinary philanthropy, a fine sense of humor, impressive intelligence and competence, but who never came across as arrogant or overbearing.
The devastating judgment in the media about Cardinal Ratzinger was all the more incomprehensible for everyone who knows him personally. Many measures gave him offense that as prefect he had supposedly made a serious about-face, away from being an open-minded reformer and becoming a conservative who braked the progress of the Second Vatican Council. As Schönborn emphasized, Ratzinger, in his function as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was above all concerned with presenting the teachings of the Church positively 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 just as convinced that reason and faith needed each other. According to Schönborn, his many 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 primarily deals with the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the mediator of salvation.
Cardinal Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. 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 behind a large theological work with a view to the relationship between politics and ethics, conscience and responsibility, which has not yet been worked through enough. In this context, the cardinal referred to two key speeches by Benedict in London before the written 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 reminder of the last meeting of the Ratzinger student group with Pope Benedict in August 2012 in Castel Gandolfo. When discussing current developments in ecumenism, the 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 one another and learning from one another what it means to be a Christian today?!”
According to Schönborn, he had already anticipated the central synodal concern of Pope Francis. In addition, Benedict, like Francis, is clearly convinced that they are committed to the service of unity, not only for Christians but for the entire human family. In this context, Schönborn also recalled the joint “Declaration on the universal brotherhood of human beings” by Pope Francis and Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb in .
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