Austria's last emperor nears sainthood

International Herald Tribune ^ | October 4, 2004 | Elisabetta Povoledo

[JB_90]

Pope John Paul II on Sunday put the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I, on the road to sainthood in a solemn beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square, prompting angry reactions in Austria and splitting the Roman Catholic community there.

[JB_90]

Holy cow. This pope's handing out beatifications like condoms at a public school.

[DManA]

The Europeon aristocracy were nothing but a bunch of thugs. How many Austrian pesants starved so little Charley could eat dainties on gold plates.

[thor76]

Sorry you feel that way, but Karl (or Charles) was of very saintly character. He took over the reigns of government from Franz Joeseph in 1916 - in the middle of WWI, and did his best to serve the countrymen of his very ethnicly diverse empire. He did his best to maintain a policy of semi autonomy in local matters, to allow the various ethnic groups to have some limited self governance.

In the war he insisted upon fair and ethical treatment of POWs, and ordered an end to the use of mustard gas. He also was constantly trying to find a way to come to the table to talk a peace settlement. But France, England, and the USA would have none of that. The only one who agree with him in his peace proposals was Pope Benedict.

After he was forced out of office by masonic anti-monarchial elements within and without his country, he twice tried to regain the throne, with the aid of the Hungarians. In the end he failed, and retired in exile to die of pneumonia.

This man was very much a Christian King......a Catholic who tried to uphold the rights of non-Catholics within his realm. This also was a leader who strove for fairness in labor practices, and with regard to housing. He was also the last Holy Roman Emporer.

As a desendant of citizens of his empire, I am very proud to see him Beatified.

Blessed Karl of Hapburg, pray for us!

[Pyro7480]

Uh, sorry to "disappoint" you, but while his army was fighting on the front, he didn't dine while he reigned. He and his family lived on official wartime rations, and forbade anyone in his family to eat white bread. This is historical fact.

[royalcello]

Your comments show you to be no better than the Jacobin thugs of the French Revolution. People like you have been responsible for millions of deaths since 1789. Take your class warfare and egalitarianism to a leftist website where it will fit in better.

The European aristocracy nurtured and led the greatest civilization the world has ever known. Charles I was a saint who even from childhood lived only to serve God and do what was best for his people. Try to read something about him before spouting off with your malicious leftwing ignorance.

[royalcello]

Amen! It was the democratically elected leaders of the USA, France, and Britain who were the villains of this tale, not Emperor Charles.

Long live the Habsburgs! May we someday see them restored to their rightful place as the sovereigns of Austria and Hungary!

[royalcello]

Here's the whole article. Isn't it interesting how, 85 years after the dynasty ceased to hold any power, leftists (including some on this website, apparently) still hate the Habsburgs with as much intensity as much as they ever did? (Note the "expert" Rumpler's derisive comment: "not really a politician." Oh, the horror! Is this the best they can come up with? As if Europe is so much better off being run by real politicians!)

Austria's last emperor nears sainthood
 
Elisabetta Povoledo IHT
Monday, October 4, 2004



ROME Pope John Paul II on Sunday put the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, Charles I, on the road to sainthood in a solemn beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square, prompting angry reactions in Austria and splitting the Roman Catholic community there.

With dozens of members of Europe's royal families in attendance, the pope beatified Austria's last monarch, saying he hoped that the emperor would “serve as an example, especially for those with political responsibilities in Europe today.”

Looking tired and speaking with difficulty, the 84-year-old pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, beatified five Catholics, including the German mystic Anna Katharina Emmerick, whose visions inspired Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ"; an Italian nun, Maria Ludovica De Angelis, who worked with children in Argentina; and two Frenchmen, Joseph-Marie Cassant, a monk, and Pierre Vigne, who founded an order of nuns.

But it is the elevation to the penultimate step before sainthood of the commander in chief of an army that used mustard gas during World War I that has drawn the most attention.

In an interview last month with the Catholic News Service, Rudolf Mitlohner, editor of the Die Furche Catholic weekly, said he thought that the beatification would “create unnecessary trouble for the church" in Austria.

Critics there believe Charles's elevation has been politically driven by conservatives. The Associated Press reported that the Austrian government had been criticized for its decision to send a delegation to Rome for the ceremony.

Andreas Khol, president of Austria's National Assembly, who represented President Heinz Fischer in Rome, told the news agency APA it was "a beautiful, joyous occasion," while the house leader of the Austrian Green Party, Stefan Schennach, said the late emperor's offspring had paid off the Roman Catholic Church, Agence France-Presse reported.

"The pope has found that selling indulgences is a lucrative and media-friendly business," he said. "The Habsburgs have for a decade lobbied the Catholic right wing and bought this glorious day for their family in Rome."

Otto von Habsburg, the emperor's 91-year-old eldest son, said he would not stoop to respond to the critics and insisted that his father's beatification was "a great celebration for all of the countries on the Danube."

APA also reported that Austrian media had ridiculed the Vatican for the miracle attributed to Charles I, the scientifically inexplicable healing of a Brazilian nun with varicose veins.

The campaign for the beatification of Charles - a step that requires at least one miracle - began in 1954 and has been sustained by a small conservative group of Austrian Catholics, the Catholic News Service reported.

Historians, too, have questioned the record of the last leader of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who became heir to the throne on June 28, 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which historians say was the spark that ignited World War I. He was made emperor in November 1916 and crowned King of Hungary a month later. He died in exile in 1922.

The Catholic News Service cites an interview in London's The Guardian with Helmut Rumpler, head of the Habsburg commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, describing Charles as “a dilettante, far too weak for the challenges facing him, out of his depth, and not really a politician.”

The Church has praised Charles I for putting his Christian faith first in making political decisions, and for his perceived role as a peacemaker during the war.

Advocates like Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, who has lobbied hard for the cause, believe that the beatification will assist Central Europeans struggling toward greater unification.

“After a century of dispersion and suffering the peoples of Central Europe have found a new form of coexistence and collaboration,” Cardinal Schonborn wrote in a Web site dedicated to Charles.

An estimated 30,000 attended the Cardinal's announcement in St. Peter's Square.

International Herald Tribune

[B-Chan]

Bravo, royalcello! Thank you for coming to the defense of the late Blessed Karl. Jacobinism is thick here at times.

The Habsburg cause is not forgotten. Our parish priest and a delegation from our parish are in Rome right now for the beatification ceremony. (Father H is a personal friend of the late Emperor’s son, HIH Karl von Habsburg, who is a member of the Europarliament — and who has always been quietly careful to not renounce any of his royal legacy.) In addition, tomorrow at our parish church the morning mass is being said in honor of the late Emperor Karl. (I'm supplying the picture of the Blessed to be displayed during the mass.) The Yellow and Black lives, never fear!

[royalcello]

Thanks. My occasional correspondent Charles Coulombe was also in Rome for the beatification ceremony. I wish I could have attended the mass that was held in New York.

the late Emperor’s son, HIH Karl von Habsburg

Don't you mean Otto? I believe he is now retired from the European Parliament. I saw him with many other royals at the mass yesterday on EWTN. Karl, 43, is Otto's son and the Emperor's grandson and eventual heir.

Incidentally, I suspect that many Austrians who do not identify themselves ideologically as monarchists would nevertheless welcome or at least not object to a restoration of the monarchy. A royalist friend once told me that when he was travelling in Austria, he dared to say to a tourism official, "you have a beautiful country....pity that it's a republic," and the official agreed. This summer, at a music festival in Switzerland I met two Austrian brothers who, when I told them of my interest, expressed their immense respect and admiration for Archduke Otto and said that they wouldn't mind having a monarchy again.

[royalcello]

Correction: I wish I could attend the mass that will be held on Saturday in New York. Goetz, will you?

[royalcello]

Could I please use your graphic on my website? I like it better than the one I have.

[xJones]

Would that the Archduke Rudolph of Mayerling infamny could have had even half the character of his relative, Karl. Who knows, history might have been very different....

[royalcello]

Archduke Rudolf's death may not have been a suicide. According to James and Joanna Bogle's biography of Karl and Zita, A Heart for Europe, there is evidence that liberals opposed to the conservative rule of Emperor Franz Joseph, knowing that the Crown Prince had somewhat different views from his father, approached him with a proposal for a coup against the Emperor. When Rudolf refused to have anything to do with such treason, they killed him and his mistress. If this theory is true, that would somewhat redeem Archduke Rudolf's character.

[xJones]

That's one story that doesn't hold up very well. Rudolph had at least two other mistresses at the time besides Maria Vetsera, was on morphine and had been diagnosed with VD. He had attempted to talk one other mistress into suicide with him previously. Only the 17 "Mary" would agree, and left farewell letters to her mother and sisters behind at Mayerling. Her tomb was ransacked by Russians in 1945 and the battered condition of her skull later discovered, was held up as proof that she'd been beaten to death instead of shot. But others have said that one entrace and exit bullet hole could still be seen on the damaged skull. Rudolph was a depressed cad who didn't want to die alone.

[royalcello]

Rudolph had at least two other mistresses at the time besides Maria Vetsera

Yes...which would seem to make it even more unlikely that he would want to give up everything for her, "including the throne and the opportunity to take action on political changes in which he had long been interested" (Bogle).

In any case, this thread is about Emperor Karl, who we can agree was a vastly superior character.

[Askel5]

Take your class warfare and egalitarianism to a leftist website where it will fit in better.

You don't think they'll fit in just fine here? =)

Thought of you during opening comments before Father's homily yesterday; here they are:

---

Today in Rome, the Holy Father beatified a very unique person. And I have put a little article in the bulletin today for you. His Apostolic Majesty Charles of Hapsburg, the Emperor King of Austria and Hungary and the last in the line of Catholic Roman Emperors that reached back over 1200 years to the coronation of Charlemagne in the year 800 was beatified this morning. He is now Blessed Charles, the Emperor.

When he came to the throne in 1916, he presided over a great many of the countries of Central Europe. He was a young man of only 29. His great-uncle, the Emperor Franz Joseph who had reigned longer than almost any other king in history had died and [Charles] immediately set about attempting to bring peace to the world, a world that was awash in World War I. He tried his hardest but, of course, was unsuccessful. The war went on until 1918, as we know, with the participation of the United States. And it was really the US participation that brought the war to an end. And, of course, we have Armistice Day November 11th every year to celebrate the end of the First World War. And on that date, the Emperor relinquished his authority--because of the changes in history that occurred as the result of World War I--and went into exile where he died soon after in 1922.

Now, I knew all about that. I'm a professor of history at the seminary so that wasn't any news. What was very new to me was when I read the material that the Vatican always assembles on a person who is about to be canonized. There is a great deal of material ... the research they do is vast and it includes Spiritual Research.

I was flabbergasted at how holy this man was. A very, very holy man. In fact, one bishop called him the "Eucharistic Emperor."

[Charles] had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. The Pope gave him special commission to have the Blessed Sacrament to have the Blessed Sacrament reserved wherever he lived so that he could pray before the tabernacle any time during the day or night and he often did his work in front of the [exposed] Blessed Sacrament.

I read that on one occasion he stopped the royal train because he saw a priest taking the Blessed Sacrament to a dying person. He stopped the train and got out and knelt as the priest carried the Body of our Lord to a dying person. He was an extraordinary man of faith, a great husband and father, a great model.

And the reason I mention all this is because we're in a time when apparently people think that in order to be a political and social leader--a public leader--you have to compromise your Christian faith. There is no way to be a practicing Christian and a politician. We hear that all the time in so many ways, don't we? That kind of "I believe one thing but I have to do and say and vote another way in the public sector."

No, you don't.

And the Holy Father, by elevating this great man to the altars shows the whole world that it is possible to be a practicing Christian and be a great public official and leader.

So, today we rejoice with the whole Church throughout the world and the Imperial Hapsburg Family. The son of Charles, there are several sons, but the oldest son who was at his coronation in 1916 is 93 years old and he was at the beatification this morning. So this must be a great day for that family, the Imperial Family.

---

[xJones]

In any case, this thread is about Emperor Karl, who we can agree was a vastly superior character

Agreed, an excellent Christian who would have made a great Emperor in less drastic times.

[A.A. Cunningham]

You are a cretin.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

I have to go to Savannah this weekend, unless my plans fall through. If I cannot go, I will certainly attend the Mass in NY.

[RFT1]

Lets see what democracy got the world, in the 1790s, it gave France the reign of terror in France, in the late 1920s, it gave Germany Hitler. We can not view the world though the lens of US history.