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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