Posted on 08/03/2004 7:56:37 PM PDT by B-Chan
After an extensive investigation into the life and the death of Emperor Karl of Austria, the Church now confirms definitively: Emperor Karl is a heroic example of Christian virtues. Acquired during a life lived responsibly as a human being, statesman, husband and father, and developed even up until his death in exile, his virtues are shining examples of his personal journey towards Christ. His confidence, despite the uncertainty of his times, was motivated by the words of the Holy Gospels: “Thy Will be done.” Even in the darkest, loneliest, and hardest hours of his life, this was his clear aim. On his deathbed Emperor Karl said: “I have to suffer so much so that my peoples can again come together”.
Today, decades later, his peoples have found new forms of communal identity. May they recognize in the newly beatified Emperor, who was devoted to all of them, a heavenly intercessor and an example illuminating the way into the future, a future which is responsible before God, and responsible for the respect and dignity of every human being.”
[Note: In 1972, upon the fiftieth anniversary of the death of His Imperial Majesty, the late Emperor’s body was disinterred and examined by an ecclesial and family commission. It was found to be incorrupt.]
At the Parish of St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas today a mass was said for the Cause of the late servant of God His Imperial Majesty Emperor Karl von Habsburg, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The parish will be sending a delegation to the Beatification of His Imperial Majesty in Rome in October and will meet with His Imperial Highness the Archduke Otto von Habsburg, Member of the Parliament of Europe and son of the late Emperor. Please pray for the soul of the Emperor, his family, and for his intercession for Europe and the Western World in this time of need.
So a former enemy of the USA is now a Saint to be in the Catholic Church? Will that not make an American Catholic a traitor to living veterans of WW1? Or a bad Catholic if a Catholic American veteran of WW1 who refuses to recognize this once enemy of America?
It's hard to imagine that anyone in power can be saintly enough, but then I know nothing about this man or his beliefs -- or for that matter what the Catholic Church uses to beatify.
He said it was a very sad story and they did not live happily ever after but instead he died in exile at a very young age. He said that they loved their people very much and governed justly but Austria was a country that was ravaged by a war they did not win. I remember that they had little children that grew up without a Daddy,and my Mom,who must have overheard,I'm sure was not happy I got all the details.As a child,the fairy tales commingled with reality,past and present,and one day without becoming aware of it the bedtime fairy tales and stories stop and get tucked away in one's mind,with other childhood memories.
I probably never heard about them again until I was a teen-ager taking a European history class. In class,I heard those familiar names,Karl and Zita and learned that Karl had prevented the train carrying Lenin to Russia to enter Austria. I went home and told my Dad,who added that Karl I had known that Communists were sending Lenin secretly to Russia to take over after a planned overthrow of the Monarchy. They had to reroute the train through Sweden instead. My Dad said Karl knew how brutal the new regime would be and feared for the fate of the Russian people as well as the Tsar and his family. I'll spare you all the other thigs I learned. Well,as the years went by I learned a little more and then forgot all about it.
I can't tell you how,surprised and happy I was to read that my little girl memory,part real/part fantasy,tragedy about Kings and Queens was going to get a happy ending when the King turned into a Saint. I am really excited about it,I kept all of my Dad's books and tomorrow I am going into the basement and find anything he may have had from that era.
Yesterday I got a call,out of a clear blue sky,from a friend who wanted to know if I wanted to go to Rome for the Beatification. I had to explain that I HATE to fly. But it sure sounds tempting.
This whole event has such a dreamlike quality and seems to be taking on a life oof its own,or maybe I am really tired.
The communists did not send Lenin into Russia - the German High Command did.
Well, being found incorrupt, as with the Orthodox, is one sign of sanctity.
Isn't Prince Vladimir of Russia venerated by the Orthodox as one of the Saints?
The Austrian monarchy was losing its grip in Europe and it seems some royals lost touch with reality as their powers waned and they sought out a make beleive world to justfy their thrones.
St. Vladimir is probably sainted because once he accepted Christianity and was reborn, he gave up his pagan ways, wives, wars and beliefs and established Christianity in Russia and Ruthenia.
Not sure but sounds interesting.
He still was a ruler. There is nothing in Orthodxy which says rules of countries can't become Saints because of the job. Don't the Orthodox also venerate St. Olaf of Norway, St. Edward the Confessor of England, and St. Stephen of Hungary? Funny that so many Saints were then in the world around AD 1000-1050 as rulers of countries.
Sts Miltuin, Lazar, Dushan and all the other rulers. As I said I don't know what criteria are used to make someone a saint because many a saint weren't very saintly and still made the rollcall! I believe the Church of the East and the West do not use the same criteria. I think of saints in terms of Mother Teresa -- a woman who owned nothing but a Bible and a pair of sandals, and helped people as muchas she could. Anyone in power simply doesn't seem to compare to that.
Maybe you can shed some light on this.
Austria wasn't only blessed with Catholic emperors but chancellors too. Here's a recent book published by Angelus Press which relates:
http://www.angeluspress.org/new_offerings.htm
An Austrian Patriot
Fr. Johannes Messner
Foreword by Dr. Alice von Hildebrand
The brief Chancellorship of Engelbert Dollfuss in Austria, lasting from May 20, 1932, until his assassination by Nazi agents on July 25, 1934, was one of the high-water marks of all European politics in the 20th century. Fr. Messner’s Dollfuss chronicles the work of the Chancellor, whose legacy is his effort to fashion Austrian public life around the social Doctrine of the Church as expressed in Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno.
In a time like our own, when, as Messner writes, there was "hardly any hope that it would ever again be possible to establish a State on Christian, or rather on Catholic, principles," Austria under Chancellor Dollfuss represented "a check...[on] the process of eliminating God and the natural moral law from public life." Today it remains, as it was then, a beacon which "leads the way to the truly Christian State."
"[Dollfuss was] the representative of all that remains of the Holy Roman Empire." –G.K. Chesterton
You have it quite wrong.
The traitor to the United States and enemy of the American people was the satanic freemason, Woodrow Wilson, for manufacturing our entry into that unfortunate war - and on the WRONG side at that!
And let us not forget his attempt at one world government after the war, the League of Nations.
After the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria by the Serbs, Russian, England and France couldn;t wait to declare war on Austria.
The financial rape and starvation of the German people after the war by England and France is the direct cause for the rise of Adolph Hitler.
Wilson was later followed by another traitor to the United States and enemy of the American people, the satanic freemason, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and his "new World Order".
Of course his version of one world government, the United Nations, is still standing and awaiting the rule of the antichrist.
I agree. Chancellor Dollfuss was a hero and a patriot as well as a true Catholic. His government stands as an example of the fact that a government need not be democratic to be morally good.
Democracy or republicanism is no guarantee of a moral State. The character of a government (i.e. the State) is determined by the character of its people (i.e. the Nation). A republic where Man is the measure of all things and moral values are a matter of political debate will end up being corrupt, injust, and unstable. An authoritarian government based upon catholic Christian principles and headed by leaders who sincerely believe in those principles is going to be a stable, just, and good government.
By and large, people get the government they deserve. A good people, who recognize the Natural Law and submit with Christian humility to all lawful authority, will generally end up with a good government that recognizes the Natural Law and submits with Christian humility to the Authority of Heaven.
That's why the Culture War is more important than any political or election battle. In general, good people = good government, no matter what form of government they have.
I missed this a week or so. (What being out of town does to one!)
Thanks for the post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.